Dick Van Dyke Reveals Why He Won’t Be Retiring After Becoming Oldest Emmy Winner At 98

The Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke recently made history when he became the oldest person to ever win an Emmy at 98 years of age. Now, Van Dyke is opening up to reveal why he never plans to retire.

Van Dyke Wins Daytime Emmy At 98

Van Dyke won the Daytime Emmy for Best Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series for his role as Mystery Man/Timothy Robicheaux on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. He was stunned when he was told that he actually made history with this win.

“Am I really the oldest? I didn’t know I was the oldest,” Van Dyke told Entertainment Tonight. “I’ll be darn. I think I’m the last of my generation, really. I’m 98.”

“I have almost all my marbles,” he added jokingly. “I can’t remember what I had for breakfast.”

Watch Van Dyke talk more about this in the video below.

‘I Can’t Believe It’

Van Dyke received a huge round of applause when he won the award.

“I don’t believe this. I feel like a spy from nighttime television,” he said in his speech. “I’m the oldest nominee in history. I can’t believe it.”

“I have been playing old men all my life,” he continued. “If I had known I would live this long I would have taken care of myself.”

Van Dyke accepted the Emmy with his wife Arlene Silver, 52. Check out Van Dyke’s full speech in the video below.

Van Dyke Reveals Why He Won’t Retire

Though Van Dyke will be turning 99 in December, he has no plans to retire for one reason: he’s having too much fun!

“It isn’t work, it’s play” he explained. “Actors are so lucky. I’ve had such a good time.”

Van Dyke made similar comments about never retiring last month.

“I always loved what I was doing,” he said, according to Fox News. ‘If it had felt like work, I probably would have stopped it a long time ago, but I just loved it.”

Van Dyke Working On New Project

Van Dyke even still has future career goals that he wants to accomplish. In fact, he’s currently working on a one-man show about his life!

“I was thinking of doing — 80 years in the business, I have a lot of stories to tell. I thought I’d just do a one-man show, like this,” he recently told People Magazine. “Just sit and talk to the audience.”

Van Dyke was inspired to do this by some of the greatest stars of Hollywood’s golden age.

“Cary Grant did it. And Gregory Peck,” he recalled. “Went on the road and talked about their careers. I think it’d be fun.”

Van Dyke went on to say that he and his wife are “working on it right now.” Silver is fully supportive of the project, saying that her husband has “got amazing stories.”