Dick Van Dyke has spent decades as Hollywood’s squeakiest of clean-cut goofballs, but one of the great what-ifs of his career involves a decidedly un-Disney turn — and it’s a story he’s revisiting in his newly published book, 100 Rules for Living to 100.
Van Dyke, who turned 100 on Dec. 13, reveals he once came this close to accepting the lead role in 1976’s horror smash The Omen, as the doomed father of devil-child Damien. He was one of several actors offered the part, alongside Roy Scheider and Charles Bronson. After much reflection, Van Dyke passed, finding the material too disturbing. The role went to Gregory Peck — Atticus Finch himself — and the film became the biggest box office hit of the year.
Van Dyke would later second-guess the decision. In a 2013 interview with The Telegraph, he admitted, “My God, that was stupid. … I was pretty puritan at the time, a Goody Two-shoes.”
Now, more than a decade later, he’s reconsidered once again. “Twelve years later, I’ve changed my mind again,” Van Dyke writes in 100 Rules for Living to 100. “[My wife] Arlene just looked up The Omen to fill me in on the details of the script I had blocked out. A lightning rod impales a priest, a devil dog makes a nanny hang herself at a kid’s birthday party, somebody is decapitated and my would-have-been character tries to stab Damien in the skull on a church altar with some special knives. Call me a Goody Two-shoes, but I now stand by my original decision. At least that’s one regret I can cross off the list.
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Also in Rambling Reporter:
Olivia Nuzzi is denying rumors that she’s adapting her just-released memoir for the screen — but THR casts it anyway; THR looks into how TikTok is pirating Broadway — and why some producers are loving it.
This story appeared in the Dec. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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