I am distantly related to Eleanor Roosevelt on my paternal grandfathers side. and this also makes us related to her husband and uncle who were both presidents.
As for people I’ve met i met tuff hedeman in my opinion he was a jerk. I have also met a few other famous pbr people. But dont remember who. I am 90% sure i saw the lady who played becky on full house at sea world in California. but didn’t meet her she was filming a comerical i believe.
Attended church regularly with Gerald Ford. Sat next to President Johnson at that same church. Worked as a janitor in the building where Grace Hopper lived and, one Christmas when the janitor (me) and the plumber were called to Admiral Hopper’s apartment for an emergency, after we took care of the issue, she served us tea and cookes.
My grandmother was sawn in half by Harry Blackstone Sr.
The historic figures I’m related to is a long list and I won’t go into it. I met Bill and Hillary Clinton in Uganda and shook their hands. I met George Shultz when he was Secretary of State. I met Dave Brubeck in Moscow and had a nice conversation with him. I met Shirley Temple Black in Prague when she was the ambassador there; another gracious person. I spoke briefly with jazz singer Jane Monheit after a concert she gave in Seattle.
Family lore says that we were related to Ernest Hemingway, but quite distantly.
Bob Baun, who helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win four Stanley Cups back in the 1960s, was a family friend. So was Will Davies, the guy who illustrated the covers of many Harlequin romance novels, as well as a number of advertisements, and other artworks. He was known as “Canada’s Norman Rockwell.”
I met Howie Mandel, before he was famous. He was a very pleasant and friendly guy. I also met Burton Cummings, of the Guess Who, and later a solo career, who wasn’t. Let’s just say that he was very full of himself.
Was that all they drank?
I attended high school with Miss Teen USA 2003. We were in the same graduating class. Did a group project with her my freshman year.
No pbr is pro bull riding tuff wss a famous rider who rode with someone named lane frost. who died in Wyoming during a rodeo there is a movie about it called 8 seconds. I met the people i met due to my nephew riding steers
You win the thread, Sir.
I shook hands with Bill Clinton when he was governor and I worked at the library he frequented. He had been jogging, and his hands were sweaty, I wiped my hand on my pants.
One of our pages, a teen aged girl who shelved books, wanted to check his books out. I spoke with him in the mystery section and asked him to go to her station.
I have a very vague win in this thread because she was from Oklahoma and had an ancestor in the Dalton gang.
I encountered a guy in the food court of a local shopping mall and probably freaked him out by staring at him for a bit, trying to remember where I had seen him before.
It wasn’t until I had left the food court and was on my way out that I learned I had been staring at David Heil – he and Bill Nye were there for some science demonstrations on the food court’s stage later that day.
Hitched a ride with Marty Feldman back in the '70s. Was an extra in “The Rose” and had a nice chat with Doris Roberts. Met Burgess Meredith on the set of “Rocky II”. Pat McCormack tripped and fell on me while shooting a scene for “Bombs Away” at the Seattle Center where I was working as a ride operator (he apologized profusely). I met Dan Rather while he was doing a broadcast of the evening news from the U.S. Bancorp Tower in Portland, Oregon.
No famous relatives or ancestors.
I have met a number of Classic Doctor Who actors and also Terry Nation of Dalek fame. I can die happy because I’ve met and kissed Tom Baker.
One of my uncles worked on the mathematics of the moon launch. That’s the closest I get to being related to someone famous.
I checked out members of the group Ratt when I worked at a hotel in Wausau, WI. They were very nice and professional.
I have met famous people where I work now but also signed an NDA so yeah, can’t talk about them.
Oh, I grew up in the same village as the speedskating Heidens. I know I’ve met them - I tried speedskating one year - but don’t remember them.
My family knows the entire 2006 Venezuelan Winter Olympic team.
I’ve met many famous people over the years, but the most noteworthy was my 18-month friendship with Ayn Rand, until she denounced me for being “hopefully irrational”. It was so much fun playing Scrabble with her; she could play it in four languages.
Among many others:
Keith Haring was my bf for about a month. A really funny guy.
Kate Mulgrew was in my kitchen.
In my one time in Studio 54, I was waiting in line for the men’s room, and the funny little guy behind me struck up a conversation. I have no idea what we talked about. Later, a friend of mine asked me what I was talking about with Truman Capote.
My mom went out with Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman) a few times in high school. She also met Orville Wright.
I’ve met Dian Parkinson (former game show hostess), she was a client at a vet I used to work for. She collected pet store puppies , IIRC. Also Rita Agassi- Andre Agassi’s sister was also a client. She was a bit rude but had an adorable pomeranian named Lucy.
Sandy Nelson (famous drummer) was a fixture in my hometown and we would see him in our local wine bar regularly - he only very recently passed away. Also Desi Arnaz Jr & Lucille Ball’s son Desi lives literally 1 block away- met him also at the vet but really nothing remarkable that I can remember about him.
Family lore is not 100% reliable but I’ve been told we were related to the McCoys of the Hatfields/McCoy saga and that may be true , my great grandfather’s last name was McCoy. Also related to Brad Renfroe , the child actor, based on my grandmother stating that we were related to anyone named Renfroe. Something involving Scottish? immigrants all moving over together and probably marrying their cousins in Alabama or Arkansas- I never had that straight. Also a relative of Charlie Goodnight, famous Texas cattle rancher.
Oh! I forgot above–I’ve also met David Cronenberg, the film director. He belonged to the same gun club that I did. He had a beautiful Mauser Broomhandle.
Perhaps not so strangely, once we had all gotten over the fact that “we have David Cronenberg as a club member,” he became just one of the guys; and joined us in discussions about sports, cars, women, and so on.
Related to anyone famous? I guess the most famous relative is a distant cousin who was a Medal of Honor winner on the Ploesti Raid in WWII.
Met anyone famous? I once attended an engagement party and engaged in chit-chat with Ross and Margot Perot. Otherwise… I’ve met a couple of Dallas City Council members at work, and from college, I know, but do not like a recent Texas Libertarian party candidate for US Senate (he’s a condescending asshole who thinks he’s always the smartest guy in the room).
Otherwise, the most famous person I know well is one of my groomsmen at my wedding is a history professor, and has been a talking head on several of those History Channel documentaries, most famously one about alien invasions, that got him quoted on a bunch of looney conspiracy theory sites back when that was actually funny and not terrifyingly scary.
My cousin’s daughter is an actress. She’s been in several movies and tv shows, one of which went for five seasons.
I don’t know her or anything. The last time I saw her was around 25 years ago, when she was less than 10 years old.
No famous relations, but here is an expanded list from a previous similar thread in 2003:
When I was a child:
Captain Kangaroo
David McCallum (Ilya Kuryakin on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”).
For 12 years I worked in the IMAX theater at the National Air and Space Museum. This gave me lots of opportunities to meet celebrities.
Aviation/Space:
Chuck Yeager (a conceited jerk, he spoke at NASM every year on the anniversary of his breaking the sound barrier)
Jeana Yeager (no relation) and Dick Rutan, who flew around the world non-stop, unrefueled in Voyager.
Scott Crossfield, first man to fly twice the speed of sound.
Patty Wagstaff, aerobatic champion
Kathryn Sullivan, Shuttle astronaut
Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 astronaut
Judy Resnik, Shuttle astronaut (died in Challenger)
Authors:
Milbourne Christopher, magician, Houdini biographer
Isaac Asimov (book signing)
Milton Glaser, graphic designer
James Randi
Mark Okrand, creator of the Klingon language
Murray Gell-Mann, physicist
Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer)
Christopher Hitchens
Kurt Vonnegut
Carl Sagan and wife Ann Druyan
Philip Morrison, nuclear physicist
Eugene Wigner, nuclear physicist
Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb)
Thor Heyerdahl
Leonard Maltin
Garrison Keillor (book signing)
John Allan Paulos (Innumeracy)
Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter, Longtitude)
Al Gore (weeks before being nominated for VP. I gave him a little tour of the museum after he gave a a talk about his book. Nice guy, and not nearly as stiff as he later seemed.)
Racecar drivers:
Mario Andretti
Al Unser, Jr.
Bobby Rahal
Roberto Moreno
Gregg Moore
Parker Johnstone
Jan Beekhuis
Chris Economaki, sportcaster
Entertainment:
Steve Goodman, musician
Alex Trebek (when I was on Jeopardy! – really!)
Pete Seeger (to my dismay, I annoyed him by taking too many pictures during a rehearsal)
Penn and Teller (book signing)
James Doohan (Scotty on Star Trek
Ron Silver, actor
Jerry Mathers (Leave it to Beaver)
Kristin Chenoweth, Tony-winning Broadway performer
Larry King (I gave him a tour of the museum)
John Denver (was standing in line for tickets to the IMAX theater)
Walter Cronkite (I was walking across the lobby, and he was standing there all by himself. I introduced myself and asked if he was meeting a museum representative. He said no, and asked if I’d show him the Enola Gay exhibit, which I did. Very nice man.)
The directors of virtually every IMAX film ever made (including To Fly! and Everest–same guy), but you probably wouldn’t recognize their names.
David Breashears, 5-time Everest summitter
Jack Nicholson
John Travolta
Mythbusters Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, and Kari Byron
Steve Oedekerk, writer, director (Ace Ventura, Patch Adams)
Brett Leonard, director (Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity)
Ang Lee (director of Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain)
Douglas Trumbull (special effects wizard: 2001, A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner)
Ben Burtt, Oscar-winning sound designer (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.)
Frank Marshall, producer (Indiana Jones, E.T., etc.)
Roy Disney
Don Hahn, producer (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King)
James Cameron
Harrison Ford (I was present at the recording session for a film he narrated)
I’ve gotten to chat with several well-known pro wrestlers at indie show meet-and-greets, some of whom (Mick Foley, Cody Rhodes, John Morrison) were absolute class acts, and a few (Austin Aries, Joey Ryan) who turned out to be complete dipshits.