Star of the Month

At one hundred years old, Dick Van Dyke stands as one of Hollywood’s last living links to the Golden Age — a performer whose very name evokes buoyant optimism, nimble charm, and the kind of wholesome, unmanufactured warmth that once defined family entertainment. Born on December 13, 1925, in West Plains, Missouri, and raised in Danville, Illinois, Richard Wayne Van Dyke grew from a lanky Midwestern dreamer into a beloved American institution. His journey from modest radio announcer to Broadway star, from television fixture to film icon, is the story of a performer who made joy his life’s work — and who, astonishingly, is still doing it.

Few figures in motion-picture history have cast as long and luminous a shadow as Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin. His bowler hat, cane, and endearing waddle made him one of the most recognizable faces on Earth. Yet behind that comic mustache was a man whose genius, controversy, and resilience defined the art of cinema itself.