Mary Carey Van Dyke: what’s documented about Barry Van Dyke’s wife
Mary Carey married the actor Barry Van Dyke in 1974. They have four children, Carey, Shane, Wes and Taryn, and they are still married more than fifty years later. Her father-in-law is Dick Van Dyke.
She has never given an interview or held a public role. Her own record is short. The family she married into has one of the more unusual working histories in American television, and that is where this page spends its time.
Mary Carey Van Dyke: quick facts
| Detail | What’s documented |
|---|---|
| Maiden name | Carey |
| Married | Barry Van Dyke, 1974 |
| Marriage length | Over 50 years |
| Children | Carey, Shane, Wes, Taryn |
| Father-in-law | Dick Van Dyke |
| Mother-in-law | Margie Willett |
| Husband’s best-known role | Steve Sloan in Diagnosis: Murder |
| Public appearances | Rare, including the American Comedy Awards in 1989 |
| Birth date, birthplace, family | Not documented anywhere |
The 1974 marriage is the anchor. Wikipedia’s entry on Barry Van Dyke lists her as Mary Carey, married that year, and mainstream outlets including Today and Hello have repeated it in coverage of the wider family.
The name Carey
Her maiden name is Carey. That is why she appears in reference works as Mary Carey rather than Mary Carey Van Dyke, which is the search term rather than her formal name.
It also explains something most pages list without noticing. Their eldest son is called Carey Van Dyke. They named him after her family.
That is a small thing, but it is the kind of detail that separates a page written by someone reading the record from a page assembled from other pages.
The 1974 marriage
They married in 1974, when Barry Van Dyke was 22 or 23. He had been acting since childhood, appearing on his father’s shows, but he was not yet a familiar television face. Galactica 1980 came in 1980, Airwolf in the mid-eighties, and Diagnosis: Murder not until 1993.
So the marriage predates his career by nearly two decades. That matters for how you read the rest of it. She did not marry a television star. She married a young actor who happened to have a very famous father.
Several pages claim the couple met in 1967 and dated for seven years before marrying. That would make her a teenager when they met. The claim is repeated widely and sourced nowhere, and at least one page competing for this keyword admits it cannot find an original reference for it.
There has been no reported separation, no public dispute, and no scandal across the whole marriage. In a family that has been on American television continuously since 1961, that is genuinely unusual.
She has appeared in public occasionally. Getty’s archive holds a photograph of her at the third annual American Comedy Awards at the Hollywood Palladium in May 1989, attending with her husband and Dick Van Dyke.
Four children, all of whom worked with their grandfather
This is the part worth knowing about the family she raised.
Barry Van Dyke played Lieutenant Detective Steve Sloan on Diagnosis: Murder from 1993 to 2001, opposite his father as Dr. Mark Sloan. The show cast a real father and son as a fictional father and son for eight seasons.
All four of the Van Dyke children appeared on screen with their grandfather as well. Viewers watching the credits over those years would have seen the surname turning up repeatedly, because the production drew on three generations of the same family.
Carey and Shane
Carey Van Dyke, born in 1976, moved into writing as well as acting. Shane Van Dyke, born in 1979, has worked as an actor, writer and director.
The two have collaborated as writers on genre films. Between them they represent the third generation of the family to make a living in the industry.
Wes and Taryn
Wes Van Dyke, born in 1984, acted early on and later moved toward visual art. Taryn Van Dyke, born in 1986, is the youngest of the four.
Both appeared alongside their grandfather during the Diagnosis: Murder years.
The wider Van Dyke family
The family Mary Carey married into extends further than the household.
- Dick Van Dyke, her father-in-law, turned 100 in December 2025 and is still working
- Margie Willett, her mother-in-law, was married to Dick Van Dyke from 1948 to 1984 and died in 2008
- Jerry Van Dyke, her husband’s uncle, was an actor best known for Coach
- Her husband has three siblings: Christian, Stacy and Carrie Beth, all of whom have appeared on screen with their father
Dick Van Dyke has been married to Arlene Silver since 2012.
A note on the grandchildren
Several pages ranking for this keyword publish a list of her grandchildren by name, matched to which of her children they belong to.
Those are the children of private adults. Some are minors. Their names appear on pages built to attract search traffic, and nobody in that family put them there.
This page will say that she has grandchildren, which is documented, and stop there. If you want a complete family tree, a genealogy service is the appropriate place for it, not a celebrity biography page carrying advertising.
What isn’t verified
- Her birth date, age or birthplace. Nothing is documented. Pages that state an age have calculated it from a guess.
- Her parents or family background. Beyond the surname Carey, nothing.
- A career of any kind. She has no acting credits, no business, and no public professional record.
- A net worth. No figure exists for her. Figures you find are her husband’s, or invented.
- The 1967 meeting and seven-year courtship. Widely repeated, never sourced.
- Her education, religion or interests. None of it appears in any record. Pages listing them are filling space.
The honest summary: a private woman married into a famous family in 1974 and stayed out of the way for fifty years. That is not a gap in the research. That is the finding.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Mary Carey Van Dyke?
The wife of actor Barry Van Dyke, married since 1974, and Dick Van Dyke’s daughter-in-law.
Is she still married to Barry Van Dyke?
Yes. The marriage has lasted more than fifty years with no reported separation.
How many children does she have?
Four: Carey, Shane, Wes and Taryn.
Is she an actress?
No. She has no acting credits and has never worked publicly in entertainment.
How old is she?
Unknown. No birth date has ever been documented.
Is she related to Dick Van Dyke?
By marriage. He is her father-in-law, through her husband Barry.
What is her net worth?
There’s no figure for her. Any number you find belongs to her husband or was invented.
Conclusion
Five decades inside one of American television’s longest-running families, and the record contains a maiden name, a wedding year, four children and one photograph from 1989.
That is not a story with much in it, and the pages that stretch it to two thousand words are stretching it with things nobody wrote down. The interesting material here belongs to the people around her, which she seems to have preferred all along.
JacksonPadilla is a writer at Around Celebrities, covering celebrity families, relationships, biographies, and the stories behind the stars. With a focus on clear and engaging storytelling, Kole helps readers discover the people and connections beyond the spotlight.
