When I see a headline or news photo of a favorite celebrity from my youth, whether an actor, a musician, or an athlete, it is invariably as part of a death notice or obituary; for instance, when a photo of Bill Melton, a White Sox slugger and home run champ in the early 1970s appeared on my Facebook page last week I was not surprised to see it was an In Memoriu notice.

So when I saw Dick Van Dyke’s name in a New York Times headline, I immediately feared the worst. I was sure that Van Dyke, forever Rob Petrie of The Dick Van Dyke Show, had perished. His TV wife, Mary Tyler Moore, has been gone since 2017, and I imagined them cavorting together in their heavenly living room, Rob dodging the pesky ottoman—though would it matter if he tumbled over it? I doubt he would be subject to any injuries in the afterlife!

But happily, and much to my surprise, Van Dyke is still alive! The article was not a notorious New York Times obituary. Rather it was a celebration. Ninety-nine-year-old Van Dyke is the star of a new Coldplay music video.

I rarely watch music videos (crotchety old man alert: I have never seen a Taylor Swift video) but I watched this one, the official video for All My Love. Through a wonderful 7 minutes, Van Dyke shimmies, clowns, and duets (admittedly off-key) with Coldplay’s Chris Martin. As photos of his family fill the screen, he discusses love and mortality, and at Martin’s suggestion, closes his eyes to think about “all the people who have meant something in his life.” Van Dyke’s eyes are closed for a long, long, time.

I am so glad he is still alive, and still a little bit of a performer. Whether as Rob Petrie or as Bert and Mr. Dawes Senior in Mary Poppins, he brought happiness to me in my youth—just as he does while watching him in this video today.

I may have lost Bill Melton, but I still have Dick Van Dyke!