Carol Burnett, Dick Van Dyke Have Emotional Reunion At Handprint Ceremony

Emotions could not have been higher Thursday as Carol Burnett and Dick Van Dyke became the focus of a remarkable reunion. The two legendary nonagenarians both attended Burnett’s handprint ceremony, held at Hollywood’s historic TCL Chinese Theatre.

Van Dyke, 98, and Burnett, 91, have been shaping the entertainment industry since the ‘40s and ‘50s, respectively. By the late ‘70s, they would work together on The Carol Burnett Show. Her former colleague enjoyed a handprint ceremony of his own almost 60 years ago.

Carol Burnett and Dick Van Dyke bask in a meaningful reunion at her handprint ceremony

Burnett and Van Dyke were all smiles on June 20 as Burnett settled down to get her hands and feet plastered into the ground around the TCL Chinese Theatre. Van Dyke, having worked with Burnett during season 11 of her landmark sitcom, was the perfect guest to be by her side, and each actor’s joy was infectious to the other.

At one point, they posed for photos. Van Dyke and Burnett stuck close together, arms linked, at one point posing beside Bob Mackie. Throughout the event, Burnett was inundated with words of admiration from actors across the industry, including Bob Odenkirk, Laure Dern, and more. Both Dern and Jayme Lemons were actually instrumental in allowing this event to take place.

Through it all, Van Dyke was there, not just as a colleague but as a longtime friend, the two having developed a strong bond decades ago that has stayed as enduring as ever.

The stars align again

The TCL Chinese Theatre has been throwing these handprint ceremonies since the 1920s. Occasionally, the stars of honor got creative with their casting, like when figure skater Sonja Henie used her ice skates, or when Kermit the Frog used a banjo.

Burnett stuck to tradition with her handprint ceremony, as did Van Dyke when he attended his own almost exactly 58 years ago.

Sometimes some popular cultural icons and fictional characters alike get a ceremony, although their handprint may not be displayed in the traditional forecourt. Those include everyone from Britney Spears to Optimus Prime, from Leo the Lion to the late great Kobe Bryant back in 2011.

But there were no other people—fictional or otherwise—that Burnett would have rather been with, and the feeling is mutual, as it’s her industry friends who helped ensure Burnett received this honor. Dern and Lemons were astonished to realize Burnett never had a handprint ceremony. “I was like, wait a minute. What? I did not believe it,” recalled Lemons.

She went on, “So, we checked. I don’t think that the Chamber of Commerce I don’t think that TLC Chinese folks really believed it either. They checked and everyone was just immediately set in motion. I mean, we called Apple TV Plus, and Rita Cooper Lee was essentially like, ‘Give me five minutes,’ and literally within moments called back and the TLC Chinese said, name a day, and we chose June 20th and here we are.”

The duo broke the news to Burnett by giving Burnett a “card with her likeness, but she’s standing in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater with a little hand and a cement truck pulling up.” When it finally clicked for Burnett, she could react only one way: she burst into tears.