Dick Van Dyke opens up about his alcoholism battle: ‘I have to be careful’
nypost.comAwards Chatter” podcast, and was asked if he thinks the intense fame from his 1960s eponymous sitcom led to him becoming an alcoholic.“I don’t recall that it did, because I’ve known performers who had to have a slug the minute the show was over.
But I never needed that,” Van Dyke said.“I don’t know what started it,” he added. “Hanging out with the wrong crowd I think.”THR reporter Scott Feinberg pointed out that sometimes genetics can be a cause for alcoholism.“I obviously am a natural,” Van Dyke admitted.
The four-time Emmy Award winner said that his addiction started when he was a teenager.“In high school, I hung around with some guys who smoked.
I didn’t. But they finally got me to take one and in no time [it took],” he said. “So I have to be careful.”Van Dyke has been sober since checking into a hospital for three weeks in 1972.Two years later, Van Dyke starred in the film “The Morning After” as a successful public relations writer who develops a serious drinking problem.He said that role was “one of the most good” he ever did in his career. “The number of people who decided to quit [drinking] …because in the show the guy doesn’t make it,” he shared.In 2016, Van Dyke told Oprah Winfrey that he found alcohol to be a way to overcome his shyness.“I was very shy — with strangers — I couldn’t talk to people,” he said at the time. “And I found if I had a drink, it would loosen me up.
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