# Brushes with Fame-Celebrity Encounters **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900 "2012-06-02T23:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cynyc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@cynyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cynyc)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/21 "2012-06-03T04:25:42Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > My family ran into Jonathan Winters at a restaurant when we went out to dinner many years ago. He turned out to be totally charming and spent quite a while telling us funny stories. He had a mouth on him that one. WHich pops out when you are like 9. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/22 "2012-06-03T04:28:53Z")
I met Neil Armstrong in West Lafayette. We were introduced and I couldn’t think of anything to say or ask that somebody hadn’t already asked, so I didn’t say anything and just stood there like an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/23 "2012-06-03T04:35:26Z")
I’ve told most of my stories before. Shared an elevator with James Carville in San Diego. Complimented his haircut. Got drunk with Spider Robinson at World-Con. Held the door for Walter Koenig at the same con. In fact, that was where Harlan dropped trou and flashed everybody. Stood next to Penn Jillette at the landing of the Discovery at Edwards after deploying the Hubble. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/24 "2012-06-03T04:53:18Z")
I’ve met a bunch. Sold propane to “John-Boy” and rented a truck to Darren McGavin. Had a short chat with Terry Gilliam and got an autograph/drawing from him. There were others… But the best was when Phylis Diller got stuck in a snowbank near my house when I was a kid. There it was, a Freakin’ Rolls-Royce, ass stuck in the snow. The rear door opens up and out sticks a skinny-ass leg with Converse High-Tops, followed by a woman wearing a full-length fur coat and _a skin-diver’s hat!_😃 _“Little boy! Little boy! Can I use your phone?”_ Unforgettable! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/25 "2012-06-03T11:13:24Z")
Met G. Gordon Liddy **and** Gene Roddenberry while they were on college speaking tours. Worked under Dan Rather and other blow-dried CBS correspondents in Moscow. Stood next to Jose Feliciano at JFK while he cell-phoned his pals to let them know he was back in town. Saw Woody Allen explaining things to a small child at the NY Museum of Natural History on the same trip. Had bit parts in several crappy Russian “blockbusters” with actors who were apparently big names in the RF (but I had never heard of them). According to my dad, he brought Bill Dana (“Jose Jimenez”) home with him one night in Minneapolis, after the comedian had finished his nightclub act. I was 10 or 11, it was around 3:00 am, and I fell immediately back to sleep after he woke me. Also according to my dad, we had dinner once with Hugh Hefner and his then-girlfriend (Cynthia Maddox) in Chicago when I was about eight. I remember the occasion, but had no idea who we were dining with. > **[Picture of Cynthia Maddox](https://www.listal.com/viewimage/545258)** > > Picture of Cynthia Maddox ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/26 "2012-06-03T11:20:05Z")
Met this babe while doing radio coverage of the kickoff party for the Russian edition of _Playboy_: > **[Playboy Magazine \[Netherlands\] (September 1995) Magazine Cover Photos - List...](https://www.famousfix.com/topic/playboy-magazine-netherlands-september-1995/magazines)** > > Magazine photos featuring Playboy Magazine \[Netherlands\] (September 1995) on the cover. Playboy Magazine \[Netherlands\] (September 1995) magazine cover photos, back issues and newstand editions. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/27 "2012-06-03T12:01:48Z")
I had the luck to be invited to a banquet where there were a number of major (at the time) British actors present. I remember one leading lady being very drunk afterwards and looking very doe-eyed at a luvvie to whom she was not then engaged or married. On another occasion I was at the Roebuck on Richmond Hill (the Jaggers’ local pub) and one of the Rolling Stones came in. I forget which, as I’m not a pop person. I was at a table nearby. My father pointed him out, and I said something about leaving him to drink his pint in peace, at which the pop star shot me a grateful look. I’ve met Prince Phillip. He didn’t insult me - I was gutted. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/28 "2012-06-03T12:37:53Z")
> [@Pai325](#): > > I met Neil Armstrong in West Lafayette. We were introduced and I couldn’t think of anything to say or ask that somebody hadn’t already asked, so I didn’t say anything and just stood there like an idiot. That’s pretty interesting.How did that come about? ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/29 "2012-06-03T13:46:02Z")
> [@JRyan35](#): > > That’s pretty interesting.How did that come about? I was at football practice, he was in town and one of the VPs brought him over to practice. We were standing on the field watching the team. We shook hands, said hello, and then I was struck dumb. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/30 "2012-06-03T14:22:39Z")
I’ve met quite a few celebrities. Just off the top of my head: Leonard Bernstein Ernest Borgnine Truman Capote Allan Ginsberg Allan Greenspan Kitty Carlyle Hart Sir Edmund Hillary Kate Mulgrew David Niven Mandy Patinkin Bernadette Peters Ayn Rand Stephen Sondheim Mickey Spillane Barbra Streisand ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/31 "2012-06-03T14:36:49Z")
Previous post on the subject: Nothing truly dramatic. In the mid-1990s I was flying from L.A. to New York and got upgrade to first class (I had scads of frequent flier miles). I sat next to someone who looked exactly like Elayne Boosler, the comedienne. I exchanged polite inconsequential chit-chat with her the whole flight, and only as the plan was beginning final approach did I decide to say, “You know, I bet you’ve heard this before, but you look exactly like Elayne Boosler.” And she gave me a funny look and then said, “Yeah, there’s a good reason for that.” I kind of chuckled and made some inane comment about how I enjoyed her work, and that was that. I got into a brief argument with Lauren Tewes over a coat-check; my date and she apparently had very similar looking coats and she thought I was trying to steal her coat when I picked it up from the coat check. Again, I didn’t recognize her at all; the coat-check girl had to tell me who it was after the fact. (Which was ironic, since I had a bit of crush on Julie McCoy… but Ms. Tewes had gained a bit of weight since her days on “The Love Boat” and I didn’t recognize her at all.) It’s just as well that I didn’t recognize until after the fact, because when I do, it’s not a pretty picture. I was walking down La Cienega in L.A. one afternoon when I saw Jamie Lee Curtis walking towards me. I recognized her immediately. She was about a half a block away. SO my mind had plenty of time to go through gyrations: “Hey, it’s Jamie Lee Curtis!” “What do I say to her?” “Jame Lee! Big fan!” No. Maybe that’s too informal. I don’t know her. “Ms. Curtis! Hi! I’m a big fan!” Ms. Curtis? What am I, selling her a house? That’s too formal. OK, forget the name. She knows who she is, anyway. “Hi! I’m a big fan!” Yeah, that’s just out of nowhere. Some kind of introductory phrase is needed. And as I was running all this stuff down in my head, we passed each other, and all I could manage was a pleasant nod. [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/32 "2012-06-03T15:00:54Z")
Back when I did college radio, I got the chance to meet a lot of interesting people. More recently I got to meet Frank Black of the Pixies. A friend used to work with him, and when The Pixies came through town, we got backstage. Talked to him for like an hour, and he was truly the nicest celebrity I’ve ever met. He waited on us, mixing us drinks and such. On a stranger note, my retired, schoolteacher sister somehow became acquaintances with [John 5](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_5_%28guitarist%29). ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/33 "2012-06-03T15:13:35Z")
Not sure this counts but… I was urinating in the Pittsburg airport and the wrestler Hillbilly Jim used the urinal next to me. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/34 "2012-06-03T15:25:50Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I was walking down La Cienega in L.A. one afternoon when I saw Jamie Lee Curtis walking towards me. I recognized her immediately. Wow, the first images that popped in my head were of her [as Ophelia in “Trading Places”](http://www.moviemarket.com/Fotos/P200427_B2796.html). [Ophelia was many a young man’s dream back then.](http://blog.inetvideo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Jamie-Lee-Curtis.jpg) Thanks, **Bricker** , for the mammaries. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/35 "2012-06-03T15:26:52Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I hit Captain Kangaroo in the head with a ping pong ball. A quick aside: Hey, that’s Robert Keeshan. He’s a former US Marine, did you know? He enlisted at age 18, just as WWII was ending. > [@suranyi](#): > > My family ran into Jonathan Winters at a restaurant when we went out to dinner many years ago. He turned out to be totally charming and spent quite a while telling us funny stories. Another former Marine, Winters served in WWII for 2½ years in the Pacific. echo7tango, over and out ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/36 "2012-06-03T15:41:47Z")
A couple of rather minor celebrity encounters: While on jury duty here recently, I rode in an elevator with Ron Kuby, a “celebrity” lawyer who’s had a radio show and more recently has shown up on the Science Channel show, Oddities, as legal counsel for the store, Obscura. (Generally when they are dealing with something that might be dicey to traffick in–human remains and antiquities, e.g.) Didn’t speak to him, but did get to eavesdrop on his conversation. It was quite amusing and NOT something I care to share here. 🙂 A while ago, I was at Therapy, an NYC gay bar, and… ugh. I dont’ know her name, honestly. She’s on one of those reality shows about hair salons, I think, and generally comes off as a total bitch. She showed up there. I didn’t care, but I did have to tell my mom, who watches whatever show it was. Oh–Brooke Shields was once outside the building. Exciting, huh? ---
**Author:** ![A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@A\_Sniveling\_Mess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Sniveling_Mess)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/37 "2012-06-03T15:43:31Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’ve met quite a few celebrities. Just off the top of my head: > > Leonard Bernstein > Ernest Borgnine > Truman Capote > Allan Ginsberg > Allan Greenspan > Kitty Carlyle Hart > Sir Edmund Hillary > Kate Mulgrew > David Niven > Mandy Patinkin > Bernadette Peters > Ayn Rand > Stephen Sondheim > Mickey Spillane > Barbra Streisand If I may ask,how did you meet Sir Edmund Hilary? ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/38 "2012-06-03T15:55:27Z")
I’m just a regular Joe Bloke, with no celebrity connections. This thread is cool as I read others’ experiences, and recall my own. Most of these are sports figures. Except for Ronnie Lott, I bumped into these people randomly. I exchanged at least a few words with each. Bill Cosby, actor and comedian Pierce Brosnan, actor (James Bond, 007 [but none is better than Sean Connery]) Jeffrey Jones, actor (Dean Ed Rooney in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) Terrell Owens, NFL, SF 49ers Pete Sampras, tennis player Beck Weathers, one of the Mt. Everest climbers in the 1996 tragedy (written of by Jon Krakauer in “Into Thin Air”) Bob Brenly, baseball catcher, SF Giants Val Kilmer, actor (“Ice Man” in “Top Gun”) Jerry Rice, NFL, SF 49ers Mike Krukow, baseball pitcher, SF Giants Mario Andretti, race driver Ronnie Lott, NFL, SF 49ers Joe Montana, NFL, SF 49ers Brent Jones, NFL, SF 49ers Dave Stewart, baseball pitcher, Oakland A’s ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/39 "2012-06-03T16:02:13Z")
One of the Smothers Brothers came into the drug store where I was working. Can’t remember which one it was now, this was probably 20 years ago. I only saw him in passing and thought he looked familiar. I saw later on that they were in town for a show and I recognized the guy I saw in the store. I nearly got run over by Harry Caray on his golf cart at Wrigley Field. I had been sent out to find some popcorn for my dad and as I was walking back to my seat I hear a horn behind me. I turn around to see Harry zipping up the ramp on his cart. He waved, I waved back. Dad was jealous. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900/40 "2012-06-03T16:18:07Z")
Two more: Max Cordoba, was my USMC Drill Instructor {and the one who recalled L.A. Detective Mark Fuhrman calling him the N word (as related to the OJ Simpson trial)} Fred Thompson, Senator from TN and 2008 presidential candidate [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brushes-with-fame-celebrity-encounters/623900.md?page=3)