GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In the world of acting, performers can usually look back on one moment of their journey and say — "That changed it all."
A Grand Rapids man, named Owen Squire Smith, recently experienced "that moment."
He created a tribute video honoring Dick Van Dyke, his biggest idol in the industry. "That moment" was a phone call from Dick himself.
“I wish there was something more I could say other than, like, 'Thank you,'" Smith said. "I feel like there's, there's something else. I'm speechless. It means so much.”
Smith still struggles to find the right words to describe maybe the biggest phone call of his life.
“I guess it truly was, like, a dream come true," he said.
That dream began when Smith was six years old. The stage quickly stole his heart.
“I think I’m pretty quiet and private," he said.
On stage though, that changes.
"My dad would always say, like, 'You have to sell it,'” Smith explained.
Smith, now 29, learned how to sell it alright, becoming an industry triple threat — he can sing, dance and act, taking notes from the man he always saw on his family's television screen growing up.
“People have talked about, like, 'Oh, what's your, like, your dream role? Or something? People say like, 'Oh, I want to be in Star Wars. Oh, I want to be in an original musical,'" Smith said. "I was, like, 'I want to be in a Dick Van Dyke biopic.'"
Dick Van Dyke is a highly-decorated retired actor and entertainer, best known for his starring roles in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. One of his signatures was physical comedy.
People started to notice similarities between Smith and his idol. Then, during his time as an undergraduate student at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, Smith wrote Van Dyke a fan letter.
“I think I opened it with, 'I have a confession to make. I've been stealing from you my whole life,'" Smith said. "I don't know if it's still floating around. I don't know if he got it, but I just wanted to say, 'Thank you.'”
Smith even invented a dance move in Van Dyke's honor.
Then, last June, Smith made a tribute video for the star of the silver screen.
"It was a month of prep for a 48 second video," Smith said. "It took six hours to film."
Smith said the clip never went viral, but thanks to the help of his friend, it found it's way to Van Dyke, who was clearly impressed.
Van Dyke, who's 97 years old, posted a screenshot of the video to his Instagram story with the caption, "If they ever make a movie about me, this kid should be at the top of the list!! The greatest likeness I've ever seen!"
Then, "that moment" happened — a surprise phone call from Van Dyke and his wife, Arlene Silver.
“To have Dick Van Dyke threaten to have you murdered is the best compliment I could receive," Smith joked. "It means so much... I did my job. I can retire. It's great.”
Smith never let go of that smile during the entire phone call because, to him, it was so much more than an eight-minute conversation with the man he looked up to most.
“I had recently lost my grandfather," Smith admitted. "Well, it's been a couple of years now, but it doesn't feel like a couple of years... It warmed my heart when I ended up getting a call from him because it was almost like my grandpa calling me.”
Some things are just too serendipitous to fully comprehend, leaving Smith searching for the deeper message.
“That experience with Dick Van Dyke and Arlene calling me, I think it gave me reassurance of, you know, no matter where you are in your career, any artist's career, struggling, feeling stuck in it, it just was a great reminder of — you're supposed to be where you are right now," he said.
Smith just closed Little Shop of Horrors at The Encore Musical Theatre Company in Dexter, Michigan. Now, he's preparing for his next role in Beauty and the Beast at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, which opens November 17th.