What The Cast Of The Dick Van Dyke Show Did After The Show Ended
"The Dick Van Dyke Show," which aired between 1961 and 1966 on CBS, is the iconic sitcom that made Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore household names. The show depicts the day-to-day life of Rob Petrie, the head writer of the fictional "Alan Brady Show." A cast of hilarious comedic actors and talented writers made the show the well-known piece of American culture it is today.
The show won 15 Emmys over the course of its five-season run, and defined the careers of many of those who helped create it. It continues to inspire imitation to this day: Most recently, the Disney+ series "WandaVision" paid homage to it in grand sci-fi style. In fact, Van Dyke instructed "WandaVision" director Matt Shakman on how to recreate the magic of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" for the first episode of the superhero series.
What happened to the legendary actors of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" after the series ended? Read on to find out.
Dick Van Dyke (Rob Petrie)
Dick Van Dyke, who played Rob Petrie, went on to have a decades-spanning career that continues to this day. We can't possibly cover anywhere near everything he's done here, which is a testament to his legend status. We can, however, spotlight the high points.
Soon after "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Van Dyke starred in Disney's 1968 musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," in which he plays oddball inventor Caractacus Potts. Then, in 1969, he starred in "The Comic," which was directed, co-written, and co-produced by "Dick Van Dyke Show" creator Carl Reiner.
Between 1971 and 1974, Van Dyke starred in "The New Dick Van Dyke Show," which was again created by Carl Reiner and aired on CBS. In this series, Van Dyke plays the host of a local TV talk show. In the third season, however, Reiner ran afoul of CBS with some content that they found questionable and left the show. Van Dyke felt the show was not worth doing without Reiner, and chose not to renew his contract after that season. The show was subsequently canceled.
The new century has brought steady work for Van Dyke, in productions like 2006's "Night at the Museum" and 2018's "Mary Poppins Returns." Notably, 2004 saw the release of "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited," a TV special reuniting much of the original cast. Despite being nearly 100 years old, Dick Van Dyke continues acting to this day.
Mary Tyler Moore (Laura Petrie)
Mary Tyler Moore had a few small parts under her belt when she joined "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but her performance as Laura Petrie is what really kick-started her career. After the show ended, she focused on movies for a while, landing the role of Miss Dorothy Brown in the 1967 musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie.” In 1969, she played a nun who becomes Elvis Presley's love interest in "Change of Habit."
Without question, however, Mary Tyler Moore is best known for her groundbreaking sitcom, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which ran from 1970 to 1977 on CBS. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" spotlighted one of the first television depictions of an independent, single woman. For that reason, it is often cited as an important cultural milestone in the feminist movement of the 1970s. Mary Tyler Moore didn't just make people laugh — she used comedy to push the world forward.
Moore starred in a variety of relatively unsuccessful shows through the 1980s, as well as a handful of movies. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Beth Jarrett in "Ordinary People," a 1980 movie about a family coping with the sudden loss of their eldest son.
Mary Tyler Moore continued acting in small parts until her death in 2017, at age 80.
Rose Marie (Sally Rogers)
Rose Marie enjoyed a solid career long before she starred as comedy writer Sally Rogers on "The Dick Van Dyke Show:" She was a well-known singer at the age of five. After "The Dick Van Dyke Show," she appeared in a vast variety of other projects. Between 1969 and 1971, she starred as Doris Day's friend Myrna Gibbons on "The Doris Day Show." In the '90s, she played Frank Fontana's mother on "Murphy Brown." Rose Marie also had small parts in shows like "Wings," "Caroline in the City," and "Herman's Head." Like many of her fellow cast members, she took part in the 2004 reunion movie, "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited."
Rose Marie was also a popular guest on "Hollywood Squares," where she amused audiences with her cynical wit. She was so popular, in fact, that she was a regular on the show for a whopping 14 years. More recently, Rose Marie was active on social media, especially Twitter.
Rose Marie died in late 2017 at the age of 94. A documentary about her, "Wait for Your Laugh," came out that same year.
Morey Amsterdam (Buddy Sorrell)
Morey Amsterdam, like Rose Marie, had a career long before he stepped foot on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." When he began his stint as comedy writer Buddy Sorrell, he had already spent years working in radio and TV as a musician, writer, and comedian.
After "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Amsterdam, who was known as the "human joke machine" for his prodigious wit, enjoyed a variety of roles and guest appearances on different projects, many of them TV comedies. These included shows like "Caroline in the City" and "Herman's Head." He also appeared semi-regularly on game shows like "The Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares," and had a small recurring role as a criminal on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless."
Amsterdam also made time for film after "The Dick Van Dyke Show" came to an end. The 1966 comedy "Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title," which he starred in, produced, and co-wrote, saw him team up with fellow "Dick Van Dyke" cast member Rose Marie. Amsterdam kept busy until he died of a heart attack in 1996, at the age of 87.
Larry Matthews (Ritchie Petrie)
Larry Matthews played Rob and Laura Petries' son Ritchie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Much to the delight of fans, Matthews has expressed warm feelings about growing up on set. Speaking about his time on the show, Matthews told Parade, "It was always a fun place to be. It felt like you were at home in a family."
When the show ended, Matthews wasn't particularly interested in continuing his acting career. He left Hollywood, studied hard, graduated from UCLA, and established a successful career behind the camera in post-production sales and coordination on shows like "Soap" and "Benson," which both debuted in 1979. However, he has made time to appear on various TV-themed documentaries and TV specials, like 1994's "The Dick Van Dyke Show Remembered" and 2000's "Inside TV Land," to discuss his time playing Ritchie Petrie. Additionally, Matthews reprised the role of Ritchie in 2004's "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited."
Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley)
Richard Deacon played Alan Brady's long-suffering brother-in-law and the producer of his show. After "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Deacon continued working as a character actor in a wide variety of television and film projects, becoming particularly well known for his portrayals of stuffy bureaucrats. He enjoyed recurring roles on "The Phyllis Diller Show," "The Beverly Hillbillies," and "The Munsters." Notably, Deacon played Roger Buell in the second season of "The Mothers-in-Law," replacing Roger Carmel, who quit the show rather than forgo a pay raise. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Deacon regularly appeared on game shows like "Match Game" and "Family Feud."
Notably, Deacon was an expert cook and microwave cooking aficionado: He published "Richard Deacon's Microwave Oven Cookbook" in 1974 and even hosted a syndicated cooking show that aired in Canada. Deacon died of a heart attack in 1984 at the age of 63.
Ann Morgan Guilbert (Millie Helper)
Ann Morgan Guilbert played the Petries' neighbor and Laura's good friend, Millie Helper. Like other actors from the series, Guibert took on roles in a wide variety of productions over the years. She had small parts in many series, including "Love, American Style," "Cheers," "Herman's Head," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Seinfeld." The span of her career was notably long: While '60s kids knew her as Millie, '90s kids remember her best as Yetta, Fran's dotty grandma, on "The Nanny."
In 1971, Guilbert played Andy's sister-in-law Nora on "The New Andy Griffith Show." She enjoyed a significant role as Theresa Fanelli on "The Fanelli Boys" between 1990 and 1991. Later, she played Birdy Lamb on "Getting On," a comedy about the extended care unit of a troubled hospital that aired between 2013 and 2015 on HBO. In 2004, she joined many of her former castmates in "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited."
Ann Morgan Guilbert died in 2016, at the age of 87.
Carl Reiner (Alan Brady)
Hollywood legend Carl Reiner based "The Dick Van Dyke Show" on his own experiences in show business. Although he didn't end up with the starring role as he originally intended, Reiner did appear on the show as TV show host Alan Brady.
After the "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Reiner's career continued charging ahead. He worked with Dick Van Dyke again in 1969 on "The Comic," which depicts the life of a fictional silent film star, played by Van Dyke. The two men reunited again from 1971 to 1974 on "The New Dick Van Dyke Show," which Reiner created.
Reiner's career was a multifaceted one. He expanded into voice-acting as the years went on, with roles on "Bob's Burgers" and "King of the Hill." He wrote multiple books, including ones for children. He steered Steve Martin to success by directing films like "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" and "All of Me" in the early '80s. He portrayed Saul Bloom in Steven Soderbergh's wildly popular "Ocean's" series of heist films. Basically, the man was Hollywood. When he died in 2020 at the age of 98, it was the end of an era.
Jerry Paris (Jerry Helper)
Jerry Paris played dentist Jerry Helper, husband of Millie Helper and the Petries' neighbor. He wasn't just a member of the cast on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," however — he directed a number of episodes as well, eventually winning an Emmy in 1964 for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy. This prompted a bit of a career shift for Paris, who took on more and more directing jobs in the ensuing years.
Paris directed episodes of "Hey, Landlord," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "The New Dick Van Dyke Show." Notably, he worked on "Happy Days" for the show's entire decade-long run, ultimately directing 237 of its 255 episodes. Other directorial credits include "Police Academy 2" and "Police Academy 3."
As an actor, Paris often played minor, uncredited roles on shows and movies he directed. He can be seen acting on "Happy Days," "The New Dick Van Dyke Show," and "Police Academy 3."
Jerry Paris died of complications related to a brain tumor in 1986, at the age of 60.
Peter Oliphant (Freddie Helper)
Peter Oliphant played Millie and Jerry Helper's son, Freddie Helper. His character is only in a few episodes, despite the fact that he lives next door to the Petries and is friends with Ritchie. After "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Oliphant took on a few more minor roles in film and television. Like Larry Matthews, however, he did not continue acting into adulthood. Instead, he blazed a very different trail in the world of game and software design.
Oliphant's achievements in this realm are spectacular. He made major waves by designing a plethora of handheld games for Mattel in the 1980s, including "Gravity," "Docking," and "World Championship Football." Oliphant went on to work for several different game companies, including Interplay Productions, where he worked on celebrated games like "Lexi-Cross" and "Stonekeep."
1991's "Lexi-Cross" is a comedic puzzle game in the vein of "Wheel of Fortune," set in the future. It was released in 1991 for DOS and 1992 for Mac."Stonekeep" is a dungeon-crawling RPG created in 1995 for DOS, Windows, and Mac. So beloved is "Stonekeep" that Computer Gaming World readers deemed it "Role-Playing Game of the Year" in 1996.
Jerry Van Dyke (Stacey Petrie)
Dick Van Dyke's real-life brother Jerry Van Dyke played his fictional brother Stacey Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." After "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Van Dyke enjoyed several big roles in TV. Not all of these were plum gigs, however. Infamously, Van Dyke starred on the short-lived 1965 sitcom "My Mother the Car," in which he played David Crabtree, a man whose late mother is reincarnated as a car (yes, really). In 2002, "My Mother the Car" was famously declared the second-worst show in history by TV Guide.
Luckily, Van Dyke redeemed himself. Likely his best-known post-"Dick Van Dyke Show" role is Assistant Coach Luther Van Dam on ABC's "Coach." There, he starred alongside Craig T. Nelson, who played Coach Hayden Fox, from 1989 to 1997.
Van Dyke also had minor roles in many shows over the years, including "Accidental Family," "Love, American Style," and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." He again played Dick Van Dyke's brother on one episode of "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" in 1973. In 2004, he joined many other former cast members in the TV movie, "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited."
Jerry Van Dyke died of heart failure in 2018 at the age of 86.
Bill Idelson (Herman Glimscher)
Bill Idelson played Sally's on-again-off-again boyfriend (and full-time Mama's boy) Herman Glimscher. Idelson was a screenwriter in addition to being an actor, with a career reaching back into the days of 1930s radio. When "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended, Idelson went on to write for a variety of TV shows, including "Love, American Style," "Happy Days," "The Odd Couple," "Gomer Pyle: USMC," and "M*A*S*H."
Idelson won several awards for his writing, and spent the last two decades of his life teaching a popular script-writing class. He published several books as well, including "Gibby," "Bill Idelson's Writing Class," and "The Story of Vic and Sade."
Idelson acted occasionally, but usually in one-off roles on shows like "The Odd Couple," "Happy Days," and" Will and Grace". He reprised his role as Herman in 2004's "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited." In it, Sally and Herman have finally tied the knot.
In 2007, Bill Idelson died of complications related to a hip injury at the age of 88.