Let us look at the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Cast Then And Now. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is an iconic movie from 1968. It was one the best children’s movies of that time and as of now. The iconic cast of that time made this movie memorable.
The film was taken from the James Bond novel Ian Fleming wrote, and Roald Dahl, a famous child actor, assisted him. The movie’s plot is about Caractacus Potts, an inventor who lives with his family, his son Jeremy Potts, his father, Grandpa Potts, and his daughter Jemima Potts.
The movie starts when the child begins begging his father to buy a car kept in a garage. To get the money, he meets Truly Scrumptious. The audience loved the cast so much, and now the audience wants to know where the original cast is now, so in this article, you can read about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang cast members and what they are doing now.
Here are the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Cast Then And Now
1. Dick Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke played the role of Caractacus Potts in the show. He had multiple talents, including Inventor, father, singer, puppet, and numerous devices that rival even the craziest Rube Goldberg creation.
Potts used to love his family and always encouraged his children to do whatever they wanted and develop their senses. Van Dyke was also a good dancer, but after some time, he stopped dancing because of his smoking habits. He used to smoke almost 40 cigarettes a day which made him stop dancing.
In one of the songs titled “Me Ol’ Bamboo,” Van has to dance using a metal bamboo stick which is heavy for him as other dancers are 15 younger than him and are more powerful than him due to which he is not able to carry the stick with perfection and to make the dance good the makers had to take 23 takes.
Van also gained fame from songs like Bye Bye Birdie and Mary Poppins. When he joined the show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he was 41 years old but was so hardworking that he never wanted to stop working. He also participated in the show with his son Barry.
The show was named Diagnosis Murder and was released in the 90s. He was also a part of the movie franchise Night in the Museum and Married Poppins, which was released in 2018.
Currently, Van is 96 years old and settled with his wife, Arlene Silver, whom he married in 2012. He told his fans that now he is not smoking cigarettes, and he quit that habit with the help of Nicotine gums.
2. Sally Ann Howes
Sally Ann Howes played the role of Truly Scrumptious. She first met with Potts in a car crash and didn’t know he would be his future husband. The couple had a lovely and romantic life in the novel, and the show makers followed that pattern, and in the show, also they made them a romantic couple.
One of the scenes where both dressed like a toy was adorable for the fans. Sally is the daughter of Bobby Howes, a Renaissance man, and Patricia Malone, a singer, and actress, shows how talented her family was.
She debuted at the age of 13 in the movie Thursday’s Child, which was released in 1943. She continued working as a child actress in some of the famous films of that time, including Anna Karenina and Vivien Leigh. Sally died in 2021. Before that, she was living with her husband and his two children. She did her last movie in 1992.
3. Adrian Hall
Adrian Hall played the child role of Jeremy Potts, the son of Caractacus Potts. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is considered his most considerable success, from which he gained fame, worked in several television shows in the UK and performed in the West End in the 1970s. He was always considered a child actor due to this show but later became a principal at the Academy Of Libe and Recorded Arts.
His famous movies include The Man Who Had Power Over Woman, Jason King, The Viaduct, Kadoyng, Two People, and Jemima Shore Investigates. Hall is 63 years old and has a family with whom he enjoys his retired life.
4. Lionel Jeffries
Lionel Jeffries played the role of Grandpa Potts, the father of Caractacus Potts. He was six months younger than Dick Van but had to do older roles because of his baldness. After doing this show, he directed and wrote some of the shows, including The Railway Children and The Amazing Mr. Blunden.
Jeffries retired from the industry in 2001 because of his health and later died in 2010 when he was 83 years old as he was suffering from Vascular Dementia. He married Eileen Mary Walsh, with whom he spent his life before he died. He had three children one son and two daughters. The First Men In The Moon was the last film that mentioned his name in the ending titles.
5. Gert Fröbe
Gert Fröbe played the role of Baron Bomburst in the show. He is the villain of the movie. He has played the role of a villain in other iconic movies like Is Paris Burning.
Some of his famous movies were The Berliner After The Rain Comes Sunshine, Decision Before Dawn, The Umbrella Coup, The Serpent’s Egg, and Death Rite. He worked with Mercedes Benz and promoted some coupes and sedans in commercials. He died at the age of 75 years in 1988 due to a heart attack.
6. Anna Quayle
Anna Quayle plays the role of Baroness Bomburst and is the wife of Baron Bomburst. Baroness loves his husband very much that she matches the jewelry with him. She won Tony Award in 1963 for the movie Stop The World- I Want To Get Off for the best supporting role.
She did A Hard day’s Night, and in the longest-running soap opera Grange Hill which premiered for 85 episodes, she played Mrs. Monroe’s role till 1994. This was the last show or movie she did.
Her famous works include A Hard Day’s Night, The Sandwich Man, Drop Dead Darling, Casino Royale, Smashing Time, and Three For All. She also did television shows like The Sooty Show, Join Jim Dale, The Georgian House, Brideshead Revisited, Mapp and Lucia, and Grange Hill. She suffered from Lewy Body Dementia in 2012 and died in 2019 at the age of 86 years.
7. Heather Ripley
Heather Ripley played the role of Jemina Potts, the daughter of Caractacus Potts. She was the one who forced her dad to buy that car from the garage. She played the eight-year-old girl role in the show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and was appreciated for her role. She also suffered many difficulties during that show, like once the paparazzi harassed her when she was with her dad.
After doing the show, she became an environmentalist and anti-nuclear activist. She was once arrested when she was in a protest. She is now 61 years old and realized that the reason for her parents splitting apart was not the show she used to act.
8. Benny Hill
Benny Hill played the role of a Toymaker. He joined the show as a writer when Dick Van requested the show, but later, he was made a Toymaker in the show. He was a suspicious character in the show as he was a Toymaker in a town where the children were banned.
He was a famous British celebrity because of the show Benny Hill Show. Benny died in 1992 due to a heart attack. The doctor advised him for a heart transplant, but he was rejected and had kidney failure.
9. Robert Helpmann
Robert Helpmann played the role of Child Catcher. He was a nightmare for the children. With a pointy nose and a wonky hat, he used to make terror for the children. He is a famous choreographer and dancer.
He was also the director of the Australian Ballet Company, which made him more famous. Once during the show, he was almost dead when the carriage he was driving went out of control and turned down. But because of his good reflexes, he could get out of that carriage and was safe.
He died in 1986 when he was 77 years old. He was suffering from Emphysema and took his last breath in Sydney. He was such a famous personality that the Parliament Of Australia gave him tribute, and all the senators were there and were standing in silence.
Also Read: Where Is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Filmed? All Locations Revealed
