Inside the Love Lives of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” Cast
Inside the Love Lives of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” Cast
Julie TremaineSat, October 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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Arlene Silver and Dick Van Dyke attend the 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors at The Kennedy Center on May 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. ; Mary Tyler Moore and husband Dr. Robert Levine.Credit: Paul Morigi/Getty; Jim Spellman/WireImage
The Dick Van Dyke Show is one of the all-time great classic sitcoms, airing 158 episodes across five seasons from 1961 to 1966. The show won 15 Emmy Awards, including best comedy series.
Created by comedy legend Carl Reiner, the show centered on Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke, who is the head writer for the fictional The Alan Brady Show.
The Dick Van Dyke Show had many trailblazing moments, including being one of the first sitcoms to show both a work and home life for its characters, and Mary Tyler Moore — who played Rob’s wife Laurie — being the first woman to regularly wear pants rather than a skirt on television.
In honor of the show’s 65th anniversary, here’s a look at the real-life loves of the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
01 of 06
Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver
Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver attend the 51st annual Daytime Emmys Awards at The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles on June 07, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty
Dick Van Dyke played Rob Petrie, head writer on The Alan Brady Show.
When he landed the part, Van Dyke had just had a major breakthrough in his starmaking turn on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie — but he married his first wife, Margie Willett, long before he was a celebrity. The two grew up together in Danville, Ill., and started dating when Van Dyke was 20. They wed in 1948.
In the 1970s, Van Dyke and Willett began spending more time apart and around 1975, he became close with Michelle Triola, his agent’s secretary.
“She was easy to talk to, she understood me,” he wrote in his 2016 memoir Keep Moving. Eventually, their relationship became romantic. He and Willett separated, but didn’t divorce until 1984.
He and Triola never married, but were together for 35 years. In 2009, she died of lung cancer.
The actor met his current wife, Arlene Silver, long before they became romantically involved. She was his makeup artist at the 2006 SAG Awards. “There was something about her beautiful eyes,” he told PEOPLE in 2013.
After Triola’s death, he and Silver became closer friends despite their 46-year age gap. “She was such a support, I fell in love,” he added. The couple married on Feb. 29, 2012.
“We were friends for so long that when I told people that I know, they were happy about [our relationship], and I was scared,” Silver told Entertainment Tonight in 2024. “I mean, the facts, our age difference. But it’s so irrelevant. I think when you see us together, it’s like you don’t even think about it.”
02 of 06
Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Levine
Mary Tyler Moore and husband Dr. Robert Levine during The 26th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards Ceremony at The Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York, New York.Credit: Robin Platzer/FilmMagic
Mary Tyler Moore played Laura Petrie, a homemaker, Rob’s wife and Ritchie’s mother.
Moore was married three times. In 1955, when she was 18, Moore married producer Richard Meeker. They had a son, Richie Meeker, in 1956, and divorced in 1961.
“During the first year of The Dick Van Dyke Show, as thrilled and bursting with excitement over my work as I was, I was equally without emotion at home,” Moore wrote in her 1995 memoir After All.
In 1962, she married Grant Tinker, who worked in television programming. The couple split in 1981.
In 1982, Moore was visiting her mother in the hospital when she met Dr. S Robert Levine, a cardiologist. They married the following year and stayed together until her death in 2017.
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“She was kind, genuine, approachable, honest, and humble,” Levine said in a statement after her death. “And she had that smile. Oh, to see her smile that smile, just once more. … My sadness is only tempered by the remarkable outpouring of good wishes, tributes, and personal ‘Mary stories’ told, with heart, by those touched by her grace.”
His statement continued, “As long as we all remember her, talk about her, share our stories about her, and what she meant to us, her light will never go out.”
03 of 06
Carl Reiner and Estelle Reiner
Carl Reiner and Estelle Reiner.Credit: M. Caulfield/WireImage
Carl Reiner, the head writer and creator of the show, also played Alan Brady.
Reiner first met his wife, Estelle, at an adult summer camp in New York. At the time, he was 20, and was a long way off from becoming a comedy legend who won 11 Emmy Awards and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
They married in 1943 and had three children together: sons Rob and Lucas and daugher Annie. The couple stayed married for 65 years, until Estelle’s death in 2008. She was 94.
Carl lived another 12 years and died at age 98.
“Nothing pleases me more than knowing that I have lived the best life possible by having met & marrying the gifted Estelle (Stella) Lebost---who partnered with me in bringing Rob, Annie & Lucas Reiner into this needy & evolving world,” Carl wrote on X, just two days before he died in June 2020.
04 of 06
Rose Marie and Bobby Guy
Bobby Guy and Rose Marie.Credit: CBS via Getty
Rose Marie played Sally Rogers, one of the comedy writers for The Alan Brady Show.
She lived her whole life in show business and married big band trumpeter Bobby Guy in 1946. They had one daughter, Georgiana. Guy died in 1964 of what his doctor described as “a sudden, overwhelming blood- stream infection,” according to The New York Times. He was only 48 years old.
Rose Marie never remarried and died in 2017.
05 of 06
Morey Amsterdam and Kay Patrick
Actor Morey Amsterdam and wife Kay Patrick attend Box Musical Anthology Party on September 14, 1993 at the Hollywood Yacht Club in Hollywood, California.Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Morey Amsterdam played Buddy Sorrell, the third of the writing trio for The Alan Brady Show. He first married actress Mabel Todd, but the marriage ended in divorce.
He wed Kay Patrick a few years after. The couple had two children: son Gregory and daughter Cathy. Amsterdam and Patrick were married for more than 50 years when he died in 1996.
06 of 06
Larry Mathews and Jennifer Mathews
Actor Larry Mathews and his wife, Jennifer, attend the TV Land Awards 2003 at the Hollywood Palladium on March 2, 2003 in Hollywood, California.Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty
When Larry Mathews was cast as Rob and Laura’s son Ritchie, he was only 4 years old. After The Dick Van Dyke Show wrapped, Matthews returned to a normal childhood life and attended UCLA. He has since worked behind the scenes in production.
Mathews married his wife Jennifer in 1987, and the couple lives in Los Angeles.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
