20/08/2013 13:01
Dick Van Dyke Escapes As Car Bursts Into Flames
A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) confirmed the 87-year-old performer's car caught fire on the hard shoulder of the Ventura Freeway.
Some off-duty nurses stopped by the car to help after Van Dyke was seen slumped over the steering wheel.
Firefighters arrived quickly and put out the blaze, said CHP spokesman, officer Saul Gomez.
Mr Gomez said he had no immediate information on Van Dyke's condition, or the cause of the fire.
A short video posted on Twitter by Van Dyke's wife, Arlene, showed the performer's charred vehicle on the side of the road and a brief glimpse of the actor talking to officials at the scene.
Van Dyke appeared unharmed in the video clip.
Van Dyke, whose show was one of the most beloved sitcoms in US television history, received a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in January.
He starred in the 1960s films Mary Poppins, alongside Dame Julie Andrews, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in which he played an inventor who creates a flying car.
The Dick Van Dyke Show, which co-starred Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, ran on CBS from 1961 to 1966 and continued on in syndicated reruns for decades.
Later in his career, he became popular with a new generation when he starred as a doctor helping police solve crimes in Diagnosis Murder, which ran from 1993 to 2001.