Dick Van Dyke Doesn’t Regret Turning Down the Lead in ‘The Omen’

Dick Van Dyke revealed why he doesn’t regret turning down the lead in the classic horror film The Omen — while also sharing the role that got away.  

The actor reminisced about his decades-long career in Hollywood during Vandy High Tea — a charity event hosted by Chris Isaacson Presents that raises funds to benefit The Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts and the forthcoming Dick Van Dyke Museum. During the event, which is held at Van Dyke’s home in Malibu, Calif., the actor shared that he was offered the lead role in 1976’s The Omen. However, the project didn’t fit his particular creative sensibility.

“I could have done The Omen that Gregory Peck did,” Van Dyke, 99, said, adding, “ I didn’t want to do that kind of movie. It just didn’t fit my taste somehow.”

As for an opportunity he declined and later regretted? A project with fellow actor Cary Grant.

“One thing I regret: [declining a movie with] Cary Grant … He was the best looking guy in the world, and I just liked the way he dressed and acted and everything … We got to be good friends. He asked me to do a movie with him, and I can’t remember why I said no — and doggone it!” he recalled.

The actor went on to reveal that he also missed out on working on a film with the iconic Sophia Loren — something for which he said he “never forgave” his agent for.

“I’m still mad about that!” he joked. “My agent called me one day, and he said, ‘I had a call from Sophia Loren’s manager, she wants to do a movie with you.’ And I said something like, ‘When do we start?’ He says, ‘Well, I turned it down.” I said, “What?’ He said, ‘Well, you would’ve had to take second billing.’ I said, “I don’t care if they mention my name!” I said. ‘I would’ve paid them!’ I never forgave him for that. He turned down a movie with Sophia Loren. Can you believe that? I didn’t even get to meet her.”

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At another part in the conversation, Van Dyke reminisced about working with the stage legend Chita Rivera in the original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie in 1960.

“I think she is the best thing that ever stepped foot on a stage,” he said of the late Rivera. “She was incredible, strong. I got that part, [but] I didn’t sing or dance, and she is such a strong dancer. She just made me look good … I won a Tony, didn’t I?”

He went on to praise Rivera for her generous and collaborative spirit, and even credited her for igniting his career.

“We were in Philadelphia, where you do performances but you’re still trying out things and rewriting and everything,” he explained. “One day, the writers came down with a new song for Chita and she said, ‘You know, Dick doesn’t have anything to do in the first act. Why don’t you give it to him?’ It was ‘Put On a Happy Face,’ which started my career … She saved my life. That was my song, and it got me a series. That’s how good a lady she was. Boy, I loved that lady.”

Van Dyke went on to star in the beloved The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran from 1961 to 1966 and established him as a national star and household name.