If I were to mention Dick Van Dyke's character in Mary Poppins, your mind would most likely automatically jump to Bert, the cockney jack-of-all-trades who the magical nanny counts as one of her closest friends.
However, I'm about to blow your mind, as I've got news for you: Dick Van Dyke played not one, but two characters in the beloved 1964 musical fantasy film. Yep, that's right. You've been fooled all of this time.
The actor - who is now 92 years old - also portrayed Mr. Dawes Sr., the old director of the bank where Mr. Banks works and the main antagonist in the movie. If you paid attention, you'd have seen that in the film credits, "Navckid Keyd" - an anagram of Dick Van Dyke - is first said to have played the role, before the letters unscramble to reveal Van Dyke's name.
Now, how did the actor play both a young kite seller and the elderly director of London's main financial centre? The answer is that prosthetics and a beard played a big part in ageing him, of course.
What's even weirder though? Van Dyke is returning as Mr Dawes again in the new film, Mary Poppins Returns - and he looks exactly as he did in the old movie!
Fans were blown away when the first full-length trailer for the highly-anticipated sequel on Monday, giving fans a glimpse into Emily Blunt’s take on the flying nanny who comes to rescue the Banks children.
But the thing that really got their attention is how 54 years later, Van Dyke was about as old as the character he played first time round, and looked exactly like him. Pretty cool, right?
"Dick Van Dyke never ages....here he is in the original Mary Poppins, and the new one (in which the spritely 92 year old dances on a desk amongst other things)," wrote a Twitter user going by the name of @westendproducer.
He was joined by fellow user @scottygb, who put: "I find it absolutely amazing that Dick Van Dyke is playing the same character in Mary Poppins Returns but this time he is nearly as old as the character he played first time round."
The new film will also feature face faces like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth and Meryl Streep and is released on December 19 2018 in the United States - just in time for Christmas.
Walt Disney's official description of the plot reads:
"Set in 1935 London, Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) are now grown-up, with Michael still living in the house on Cherry Tree Lane. He lives there with his three children, Annabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh), and Georgie (Joel Dawson), and their housekeeper, Ellen (Julie Walters). After Michael's wife's death, Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) comes back to the Banks family with street lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), and eccentric cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep)."
We can't wait to see Dick Van Dyke in all of his glory!
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