Jerry Van Dyke: Clown, Brother, and Friend
On January 5th, 2018, Jerry McCord Van Dyke, younger brother of Disney legend of Dick Van Dyke, passed away of a heart failure at his ranch in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was 86. Like his brother, Jerry Van Dyke also made us laugh on television and film. But unlike Dick, Jerry never achieved fame until the later years of his career. Although he was stuck in his brother’s famous shadow for many years, they remained close until his death.
Van Dyke was born in Danville, Illinois on July 27th, 1931 (Six years after his brother). As a child he knew immediately that he wanted to pursue stand-up comedy, and he gained a reputation for being a clown in school. He continued to pursue stand-up in nightclubs, before joining the United States Air Force at the age of 21. While in the Air Force, he won a military contest which landed him two appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. He also got a regular role on the short-lived The Judy Garland Show and also a hosting job of the game show Picture This (1963). The same year as “Picture This,” he starred in three major Hollywood movies: The Courtship of Eddie’s Father with Shirley Jones and Ron Howard, McLintock! with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, and Palm Springs Weekend with Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens.
After these movies and short-lived TV appearances, Van Dyke was offered the main role of Gilligan in Gilligan’s Island (1964-1967), but declined. He deemed the pilot script for “Gilligan’s Island,” to be the “worst thing he had ever read.” He was also offered a role on The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968) replacing a departing Don Knotts, but turned it down as well. He did choose to do My Mother the Car (1965-1966) a television sit-com about a man and his relationship with his mother, who ironically enough gets reincarnated into a 1928 Porter Automobile. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after only 1 season. (In 2002, it was proclaimed by TV Guide as the second worst television show ever). While Jerry Van Dyke’s career was not going particularly well at this point, it did however receive a moderate boost when he got the role of (real-life brother) Dick Van Dyke’s on-screen brother, Stacey Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966).
Jerry returned to his first love, stand-up comedy in the 1970s. He performed in various nightclubs all throughout the country including Las Vegas, Reno, Milwaukee, and in Atlantic City. He also continued to accept occasional television roles, appearing in one episode of season Four of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977), and reuniting with his brother (as well as his nephew, Barry Van Dyke) on Diagnosis: Murder (1993-2001). In 1989, however, he was cast in the role with which he would be identified the rest of his life: Assistant Coach Luther Horatio Van Dam in the ABC sit-com Coach (1989-1997). The role earned him four Emmy nominations, but he disappointingly never won.
In 1996, the year before “Coach,” went off the air, (and the year The Walt Disney Company acquired the ABC network) Disney cast Jerry Van Dyke as the host of The Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade special. Van Dyke’s final acting role was playing Patricia Heaton’s father, Tag Spence in Disney/ABC’s The Middle (2009-present). In the show’s sixth season, he reunited again with brother Dick, who played Patricia Heaton’s uncle in the episode entitled “Two of a Kind.”
Besides being a beloved comedian, Jerry Van Dyke also had a soda shoppe named after him in Fort Worth which I was fortunate enough to visit a couple of times as a child. The restaurant housed all kinds of different “Coach,” and other Jerry van Dyke memorabilia, including pictures of himself with his famous brother. In 1982, he gave an interview on television where he explained that, although he and Dick had very different career paths, they became close as they got older. He even specifically said, “My brother is my best friend.” Jerry Van Dyke has undoubtedly left a legacy of humor on television and movies.
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