Celebrity Encounters

Cafe Society
1

After mentioning in this thread that I had a gig as an extra in “Patch Adams”, I wanted to relate the story of how I got to meet Robin Williams on day on the set.

I was also curious to hear other dopers’ celebrity encounter stories.

When you’re an extra, they give you VERY specific rules as to how you should behave towards the principals. There were a lot of “don’t bring cameras on the set” rules, but one thing they kept drilling into us was to never, ever approach and talk to Robin Williams. My take on this rule was that if some one were to get him chatting, no actual work would get done for a long time.

The day we were shooting the library scene, we were waiting for the principals to get back from lunch. A couple of us were on the front steps of the library playing spades (which we did 10 out of the 14 hours we were there everyday), when Robin Williams and the female lead arrive on their golf carts. Immediately Robin Williams is mobbed by a gaggle of girl scouts.

He stayed behind, talking with them, signing autographs, and generally being a very nice guy, untill a PA dragged him away. We could hear the PA telling the dissapointed girls, “Mr. Williams has to go to work.”

As he came up the steps, we go up to get out of his way, being mindful of the Rules. Just before he walked into the building, he stopped, turned towards us, and came our way to say hello. He introduced himself, shaked each of our hands, and thanked us for our work. One of our group then mentioned how nice he had been with the girl scouts.

Robin (he said we could call him Robin) made the comment that it made really no sense to alienate and generally be rude to one’s primary fan base. He then started improvising things like “Ooh, Mommy, he’s mean.”

At that point I chimed in. “It could be worse,” I said.

He looked at me, “How so?”

“You could say, ‘Hey, little girl, want some candy?’” I replied.

He looked at me, “Ooh… oh.” then started laughing.

The PA then came and took him away.

2

Woke up this morning, went to the bathroom and… BANG! there was a celebrity right there, looking at me! :stuck_out_tongue:

3

Joanne Worley doesn’t count.

4

I met John Wayne in my dentist’s office. He was still a huge man even at the end of his life, and you could hear his booming laugh a mile away. He was a nice guy to a awestruck kid, and he flirted with all the office girls.

I ran into Mike Tyson in a Las Vegas casino (almost literally). He is square- short but incredibly wide. He was being guarded by the three biggest humans I have ever seen.

My MIL met OJ Simpson in family court and Muhammed Ali in an elevator.

I’m sure I’ll think of some more later.

5

I met country singer Michael Peterson before he got famous. He was travelling with an evangelist, performing martial arts and feats of strength. His job was to attract us youngsters to the services, so that we would hear the evangelist’s message. (The evangelist was Ron Rearick, a former mob hitman known as the “Iceman”, who had become a Christian.) Anyway, I got to see Peterson use his head to shatter a stack of huge, thick ice blocks.

Back around 1990 or '91, I got to cook porterhouse steaks for several members of the Seattle Seahawks defensive squad, and former player Ervin (?) “Blueprint” Parker. Parker had some kind of anti-drug organization that toured high schools. He would round up a few volunteers from the nearest NFL team, and bring them all to high schools to talk to the kids about staying off drugs. When they came through my town, they all came into the restaurant where I worked. After they ate my cooking, I got my photo taken with the group, and got all their autographs.

6

Check out my second post in this thread for the story of how I met Jack Black before he was famous.

7

A good friend of mine is Carson Daly’s brother. I’ve hung out with him many times - he’s just a normal guy and doesn’t act like a celebrity at all.

My brother has worked with a girl for many years that was good friends with Tony LaRussa growing up. As I grew up in St. Louis, I am a huge Cards fan and it was a great pleasure to hang out at Tony’s house in the Bay Area during the All-Star break two years ago with my brother, his coworker and Tony’s friend, Tony, Jim Edmonds, Edgar Renteria, Matt Morris and their wives. We sat around drinking beer and talking about the Cards. Incredible. One thing I found out is that Tony really doesn’t like the attitude of today’s players, and he used Fernando Vina as an example. I wasn’t surprised to see him gone this year. A major point of discussion was this up-and-coming player that Tony and all the players were saying was going to be a superstar. His name was Albert Pujols.

When I was in Maui for a friend’s wedding last October Mike Tyson was there. He was in line in front of me for the water slide at the hotel. I was afraid to talk to him, though. :slight_smile:

8

Hmm. Celebrities I have met. Some of them were not celebrities when I met them.

John Anderson (presidential candidate)
Philip Anglim
Warren Beatty
Joshua Bell
David Bowie
Sheila Chandra
Holly Cole
Elvis Costello
Mary Coughlan
Julee Cruise
Patrika Darbo
Sandy Dennis
Diamanda Galas
Katharine Hepburn
Ray Wylie Hubbard
William Hurt
David Keith
Matthew Laborteaux
Angela Lansbury
Kirstie MacColl
Don Meredith
Willie Nelson
Mary Margaret O’Hara
Cate O’Riordan
Doug Savant
Amy Sedaris
David Sedaris
Jane Siberry
Alexis Smith
Sting
Tom Waits
Christopher Walken
Jerry Jeff Walker
Victoria Williams

9

I’ve met quite a few, but the most memorable was when Phyliss Diller’s limo got stuck in the snow and I brought her home to use the phone to get another one sent out.

10

Michael J. Fox was filming in the house next to my in-laws, maybe 18 or 20 years ago, I forgot the film (it wasn’t memorable at all). To apologize for the inconvenience, he came over to visit on Passover, just before the seder started. We took pictures of the kids next to him (they were as tall as he was, and they were like 10 and 8), and he signed some haggadot.

When I ran the film society at University of Chicago, way back in the '60s, I met Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Otto Preminger, and George Cukor.

11

I knew I forgot some:

Kathy Acker
Laurie Anderson
J.G. Ballard
Karen Finley
Richard Ford
Billy Idol
Grace Jones
Eartha Kitt
Joe Mantegna
Lily Tomlin

12

I’ve met a few, but my most memorable:

I was working as a pastry chef in a little trendy restaurant in Venice (California, that is). It was often frequented by celebrities, but one night, Robert Downey, Jr. and Mel Gibson were having dinner with a few others. After dinner, they went out to the back, where we had a little outdoor patio with a firepit, and I had a server send out a few desserts. My part of the kitchen was adjecent to the patio, and since it was a little slow that night, I went outside to have a smoke. A few minutes later, Robert Downey, Jr. came up and introduced himself, and we chatted about the restaurant–when he found out that I was the pastry chef, that’s when he called Mel over, and told him that I was the one who made “that chocolate thing” that everyone raved about. Mel complemented me on my work, and right about then, I got a few orders called in, so I had to head back to my station.

That was fun.

13

How high a level of fame are we talking? I’ve met quite a few people whose names would be recognized in my own country, but would probably have zero name-recognition worldwide.

Today, I shook hands with the mayor of Montreal, and with both halves of the first same-sex married couple in Quebec.

I’ve also met Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul.

Canadian politicans Svend Robinson and Alexa Mcdonough. Ex-BC-premier Bill Vander Zalm once tripped over me. I’ve interviewed Glen Murray, mayor of Winnipeg, for a university paper. I also interviewed activist Jaggi Singh.

Terrifying astrologer Jojo Savard (she was wearing a pink fur coat at the time).

A few musicians. I lived with Peter Arsenault of the Montreal band Doughboys.

My funniest story: She came into the magazine store where I was working at the time, and bought a stack of magazines on credit card. I asked for her ID. She seemed more flabbergasted than angry. Even when I saw the name it didn’t click.

When I was tidying up the stacks an hour later, I saw her on the cover of Chatelaine. She was the singer Mitsou.

Of course, my roommate’s father was a national news reporter for our government radio station, CBC, so he could qualify as a celebrity, too.

14

When I was working at Kmart, I once got to wait on Jerome Bettis.

That was pretty cool. It was the morning of a big play off game against the Patriots (Unfortunately, the Steelers lost), so I didn’t want to bother him for his autograph-he seemed a little too preoccupied. I just told him good luck instead.

15

No big names here, but I do have three little things. My dad knows Troy Brown, who plays for the New England Patriots. Dad designs kitchens and cabnitry and stuff like that, and he does work for him.

I met Allison Arngrim once, in 1999 I think. She played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. It was actually really cool. My friend and I were sitting at this picnic table and AA was nearby with a bunch of people around her getting autographs and stuff. Well, after all the people finished, she was left sitting alone and came over to our table. She said “Hi, I’m Allison, mind if I join you all?” We, of course, let her sit down and had a really enjoyable time laughing and joking around. Very nice and funny lady. I’ve actually met several people that have something to do with the Ingalls/Wilder families in some way (people knew Laura, bio writers, board members at the homesites, relatives of people mentioned in the books, etc.)

I keep trying to think of anything else. The only thing I keep thinking about is REALLY stupid. Noone probably even remembers this but me, but in the late 80s or maybe even early 90s there was a Saturday morning TV show called “The Guys Next Door” who were kinda like a New Kids on the Block type. Anyway, they came to my Kmart and did an autograph session. How dumb is that? LOL

16

My celebrity encounters, in no order whatsoever:

The entire Chicago Bears Superbowl team, including the coaches, almost all of whom were regular customers at the two restaurants I worked at (concurrently) during that season. Dave Duerson once became highly confused because the hostess he had at one restaurant was the waitress at another the previous week. Almost all very nice guys, except Jim McMahon who was a spoiled brat with a filthy mouth, and Richard Dent, who wasn’t un-nice, exactly, but was very intimidating. One of my co-workers was also the daughter of the offensive coach.

Also Gale Sayers (Chicago Bears 1965-1971) and Ed Sprinkle (Chicago Bears, 1944-1955).

James Garner, at the Indianapolis 500. He was on a golf cart that nearly ran over my foot, and he apologized very nicely.

Ann Jillian, who used to sing at the nightclub where my mother worked.

Dennis Farina, whose sister Bernadette and brother Roland are my cousin’s godparents.

Danny Bonaduce, who I sort of had a running phone gag relationship with when he was a talk radio DJ in Chicago.

Meat Loaf, backstage at a concert. George Thorogood, ditto.

Country singer Chely Wright bought some of my handmade jewelry.

Science fiction writer Harry Harrison.

Tom Baker of Dr. Who fame, who was staggeringly drunk and obnoxious in an elevator. He fell against me and had to be pulled off.

Elvis impersonator and actually a really good guitarist, Myles Loud (who I gather is quite the draw somewhere in Florida now) - I, umm, used to date him. (And as you might have guessed, that’s not his real name.)

Serial killer John Wayne Gacy was a dinner guest in my home - BEFORE he was caught, obviously.

Comedian Gallagher, who was a colossal jackass.

I’ll think of more. I’m old, you have to be patient with me.

17

There are a lot that I can’t remember, but I saw Peter Falk drawing in one of the extra studios at my art school (Otis) in L.A.

Harrison Ford on location of Blade Runner. (The Bradbury Building, on, I think, 3rd Street.)

Angela Lansbury on location for Murder She Wrote. I was an extra who threw some pottery in a scene. She complimented my pottery.

George Clooney and Kirsty Alley at the commissary of Warner Brothers. Well, I didn’t meet them, but I saw them.

Charles Grodin, at the commissary at Universal. Didn’t meet him, but saw him.

Jameson Parker and Gerald McRaney on the set of Simon and Simon, on the Universal lot. (I did sketches of both of them and they signed my drawings.)

Stephanie Zimbalist, Pierce Brosnan and guest star Michael Durrell on location (Pasadena Hilton, I think) for Remington Steele. They signed a drawing I’d done of them and were both really nice.

Attended a special screening of Quantum Leap at (I think) Universal after the show was saved from cancellation thanks to the fans letters. After the screening of the episode, both Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell came out to talk about the show and ask questions. I remember that Stockwell smoked a cigar and we could all smell it (it didn’t smell bad).

Harry Hamlin, Kier Dullea (Dave of 2001), Michael York, Bruce Boxleitner and umpteen other actors and actresses at various conventions. They all seemed really nice.

The cast of the original Star Trek series at a special opening of some Star Trek ride at Universal.

I could ramble on, but that’s enough for now.

18

I can’t say that i’ve met celebrities on the same scale as you guys, but I’ve met one or two.

When I was a child, about 13 years old, I sat like 2 chairs away from Jack Kent Cooke (Redskin Owner before Snyder) in the Emergency Dept of a D.C. area hospital. Cannot remember which hospital it was. I didn’t say much too him because I wasn’t too much into footabll at the time. Man, I wish I was little older then to trully grasp who I was meeting at the time.
I think it was 1998, a couple days after Christmas, My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I had to exchange and return a few things. So, we got to the videogame store and stand in this extremely long line. I think I was the for about 15 minutes when I hear this loud voice yell “Do yall got the new South Park Game?” I look around to see who it is and it was Biz Markie. I was trying to play cool, but I look around and see everyone is cool (not playing). The guy behind me told me that Biz is always at the mall thats why no one else really cared except for my girl and I.

19

I can’t believe I missed this:

Okay. Please elaborate!

One of my friends bummed around for a little while with this group of hippies. He got bored and left, and found out later that the group of hippies were the Charles Manson group. (Obviously this was before the murders.)

This same friend dated Sal Mineo a few weeks before he was murdered.

20

Whaaaaaa??? :eek:

Ummmmm…

I want know more.