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Dick Van Dyke has spent decades making audiences smile – but a new documentary marking the Hollywood legend’s 100th birthday takes an unabashed look at the struggles he faced behind the scenes.“American Masters – Starring Dick Van Dyke,” premiering Friday on PBS, chronicled the entertainer’s eight-decade career while addressing what director John Scheinfeld described as Van Dyke’s “personal demons with alcohol” during the height of his fame.“I’ve done a lot of these on famous people, and almost always there’s somebody who will say, ‘Oh, I didn’t like him’ or ‘He did this, or she did that,’” Scheinfeld told The Post ahead of the doc’s release.“In the ten months we were working on this, there was not one person who had a bad thing to say about Dick,” the director added.
“So he’s very much the same off-screen as he is on screen.”However, Scheinfeld acknowledged that it was important the film didn’t gloss over Van Dyke’s battle with alcoholism, a chapter of the “Bye Bye Birdie” star’s life that isn’t as well known.“We do touch on a number of things along the way, primarily his battle in the ’60s and ’70s with alcoholism,” the filmmaker said.“He has spoken about it, but it is something that not everyone knows a lot about.”One of the documentary’s most revealing moments revisited an appearance Van Dyke made on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1974, where he spoke openly about his addiction.“He did a whole 90-minute show with Cavett in which he spoke with remarkable candor and honesty about this battle that he had,” Scheinfeld shared.
“I think that reveals much about Dick as a person as well.”During his appearance on “The Dick Cavett Show” in question, Van Dyke described alcoholism as a “physical disease.”“It has nothing to do with the person not being mature enough not to drink too much,” he said at the time.“It’s a true addiction, like a heroin addiction.”Van Dyke opened u...