Dick Van Dyke To Receive SAG Life Achievement

There’s a bit of happiness to come out of Hollywood this week. It’s been announced that Dick Van Dyke will be the recipient of the Life of Achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild, better known as SAG, ceremony. The award is given once a year to a member of the SAG community that exemplifies career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Van Dyke will receive the award in January at the SAG-AFTRA ceremony.

The guild, now known as SAG-AFTRA, announced on Tuesday that the “beloved actor, singer, dancer, writer and comedian” will receive the honor at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will take place on January 27, 2013. In the statement released, the award goes to an actor who has the, “finest ideals of the acting profession.” Fans of Dick Van Dyke can catch him pick up the honor when the show airs live on TNT and TBS.

Recognizing Dick Van Dyke for all of his efforts throughout his entire career, SAG-AFTRA co-president Ken Howard said of the entertainer:

“Dick is the consummate entertainer – an enormously talented performer whose work has crossed nearly every major category of entertainment.”

Howard continued, noting the multitude of achievements that highlight Van Dyke’s career, “[f]rom his career-changing Broadway turn in Bye Bye Birdie and his deadpan humor in the Emmy winning Dick Van Dyke Show, to his unforgettable performance as Bert in Mary Poppins, he sets a high bar for actors.”

Some past recipients of the award include Clint Eastwood, Julie Andrews, James Earl Jones, Betty White, Ernest Borgnine, and Mary Tyler Moore.