Brush with Fame & Six Degrees of Seperation, part Deux

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

My 8-times-great-grandfather was the cousin of John Tillotson, the Archbishop of Canturbury in 1690-something. The 8TGG, also named John Tillotson, immigrated in the 1600s and was fined for not going to church, sued for killing a neighbour’s horse, and admonished for chaining his wife to the bed to keep her indoors.

My dad told me that we were distantly related to the Crocketts, but I’ve never confirmed it.

I occasionally see Otto Herscovic, inventor of the Hervic tape splicer (well-known to super-8 filmmakers) at Bel Aire Camera in Westwood. I met Lloyd Bridges there too.

Rod Steiger was ahead of me in line at Adray’s (the one that used to be behind A16 on Pico). He turned to me and commented he didn’t know anything about CD players.

Robert Conrad in a gun store.

Several actors on the set of The Right Stuff when I was an extra. (I was working at Edwards AFB at the time.)

Dad (who was in the FAA) picked up Chuck Yeager when the latter’s ultralight made a forced landing in Lancaster.

I ran into Burt Rutan, designer of the Voyager round-the-world aircraft while he was flying a kite in a park in Lancaster one Christmas. I met his brother Dick and Jeena Yeager, the pilots who flew the Voyager at the Santa Monica Museum of Flight.

I used to know Durga McBroom, who was the black dancer in Flashdance and who sang backup for Pink Floyd.

My former roommate knows June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters. We went to her place once where I watched him make an idiot of himself.

The sports guy from KTLA (can’t remember his name and I’m too lazy to look it up) went to my high school. He was at the reunion a few months ago.

If I add those brushes to three bucks, I can get a latte!

22

My parents once lived across the street from Ish Kabibble’s parents!

Zymurgist

23

Oooh, I want to play!

I was at a Science Fiction convention a couple years ago here in Houston where the special guest was Jerry Doyle, a.k.a. Garibaldi on Babylon 5. He was cool - his first time at a con. He was there all three days, hanging around in the public lounge and such.

I met Wil Weaton (Wesley Crusher) twice. First time was at Space Center Houston for the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11. He was there as a special guest being named some representative for science education for the following year. This was after his exit from ST:TNG but before showing up again in movies. After all the planned speeches and such, I was milling about the place shortly before everyone left. He was buying a drink from the cash bar, and flirting with the waitress. I wandered over casually, and we spoke a few minutes. I was working at JSC, and he said something to the effect of being envious of my job. He also mentioned a little of what he’d been up to. He even gave me an autographed photo. I came this close to inviting him to a beach party I was headed to that night for the rest of the weekend, but he had an early flight out, and his mom (as his agent) was with him. Then about 9 months later I went to a Star Trek con in a different state and he happened to be the guest speaker. I went through the autograph line and he claimed he remembered me - at least he remembered the event.

I am a distant cousin of John Ritter, but never met him.

A guy at work today was telling stories of when he was in college and knew Richard Feynman.

24

AWB: Oh pooh! One little tipo…ytop typo… PHFFT.

Meanwhile: Back to six degrees of Shirley:

My Father In Law bricked something (Can’t remember.) of Bill Lambier ( former Piston) at his house. Said despite the Bad Boy image, that BL was a real nice guy.

I saw Stacy Keach while in NY do a scene for Mike Hammer about 12 years ago.

25

Oh, Pantellerite, GuanoLad, say it isn’t so! I luurrrve Tommy Lee Jones and it pains me that IRL he might be a jackass.

I volunteer to go out and meet him to find out though drool

26

I had lunch with Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille (Poison) at Vista when they came to town for a concert. I still have their autographs on a Vista bag.

I also met Brian White back in 1994 when he played at a local bar that I frequent. We hung out for a couple of hours afterward and had breakfast (Burger King) in the back room of the bar with a bunch of other people. That was pretty cool. I also met Boy Howdy, Hank Flamingo, and just last weekend I met The Great Divide. We get a lot of country acts here, can you tell.

The lady that used to babysit me when I was a kid is good friends with Joe Montana too. When Joe played for the KC Chiefs they got together quite a bit.

That John Denver’s full of shit man!

27

Hmm, let’s see…

  • I almost ran into Howard Cosell (literally) down at Rockefeller Center
  • I met Phil Esposito at Boston Garden (during his days as color man for the Rangers)
  • I used to work with a guy who went to high school with Ace Frehley
  • my 7th-grade science teacher was a warm-up pitcher for the Yankees in the late 70’s
  • I flew on the same Phoenix-DC flight as Lynda Carter
  • I met Jerry Vale in a record store
  • a friend of the wife of one of my classmates once dated David Duchovny
  • a friend of my SO’s used to babysit Jakob Dylan
  • my SO’s former thesis advisor was Stephen Jay Gould’s thesis advisor as well
28

I met Harlan Ellison a couple of times at a comic convention in San Diego.

29

Ooohhh, Johnny, Harlan once gave a lecture in my town in NC, and then came to the restaurant I was waiting tables in and professed a sweet crush on me. Blush It was flattering, cause I really loved his writing.

Blush

30

That sounds like come-on talk, but to elaborate, we’d met during the lecture, and he got his squires to bring him to the restaurant again &…

Oh, Damn,*Blush

31

I posted an Ellison encounter in another thread somewhere (phone call to my best bud, follow-up apology leter…) so I won’t post it here.

At the con, Ellison liked my “Have a nice day, Asshole” button, so I gave it to him. He was very pleasant. Great writer.

I taped an interview when he was on NPR once. Very funny. He was ranting about Joan Collins, who played Edith Kielor in the Star Trek episode he penned. He said she now relates that she played “Hitler’s girlfriend” in the episode, in an amusing parody of her voice. He said she’s an idiot.

I also have an LP on which he reads “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Tick-Tock Man and Shatterday. I don’t remember if he autographed it, and my vinyl are all packed away.