Dick Van Dyke James Garner and Elke Sommer, "Some Kind of a Nut", "Never a Dull Moment" with Edward G. Robinson, and "Divorce American Style" with Debbie Reynolds and Jean Simmons. But he also starred as Caractacus Pott (with his native accent, at his own insistence, despite the English setting) in the successful musical version of Ian Fleming's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968), which co-starred Sally Ann Howes and featured the same songwriters (The Sherman Brothers) and choreographers (Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood) as "Mary Poppins". In 1969, Van Dyke appeared in the comedy-drama "The Comic", written and directed by Carl Reiner.
Caractacus (horse) successful sire. Caractacus was foaled in 1859 at William Blenkiron's Middle Park stud farm in Eltham. He was sired by Kingston (foaled 1849), described as "one of the handsomest horses" and a winner of several important stakes races. Kingston died in 1861 before Caractacus’ Derby win. Caractacus' dam, Defenceless (foaled in 1844), was bred by W. Etwall and was sired by Defence out of an unnamed mare sired by Cain. Defenceless was not a successful racehorse, starting only once as a two-year-old and finishing last. Defenceless went completely blind as a three-year-old. Blenkiron frequently observed the mare's ability to maneuver