The “Killer Tomatoes” reference reminded me - I went to high school with Brad, older brother of Steve Lundquist, who was to go on to win Olympic gold medals in swimming. I met Steve at Brad’s graduation.
She’s not incredibly famous, but I went to high school with singer/songwriter Vienna Teng. She wasn’t using that name back then, and she played piano for the choir but didn’t sing. I asked her to a school dance once, but she had a date already.
Based on the quality of her songs today, she’d be embarrased by the poem she wrote in a Christmas card she gave me.
My stepfather ran various cultural centers in San Francisco from the 60s into the 90s. He told me about a fling he had with a girl named Siggy who worked with him early on, until one day she up and left. Then he started talking about how he heard she was in some movie about gorillas, and I blurted out, “Gorillas in the Mist? You knew Sigourney Weaver?” Yep. He hadn’t seen Alien or Aliens or Ghostbusters, or possibly even knew they existed, but I certainly had.
My brother-in-law Scott (he spells it Scot for Hollywood purposes) is best friends with Ben Gleib(erman), writes some of his material, and handles more of the business and technical side of things. They’re not famous yet, but they’re making names for themselves.
I could have sworn he lived in JP.
And I’m now convinced that every single Doper lives in, has lived in, or will live in Brighton.
Robot Arm, I’d love to roll with you sometime. PM me.
Maybe it’s the center of the universe. Whoa, cosmic, man.
But seriously? Think about this – All of my neighbors live there, too! Freaky, huh?
MY SIL loves little country music honky tonk bars. She met a young just starting out singer in one who asked her if she wanted to invest in him. She said she didn’t think he’d make it big time, but she did love his name: GARTH BROOKS
I knew Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams in college; we worked at the college radio station. Had a great speaking voice and already had a job (he was a senior; I was a freshman) at a local radio station.
I met Jane Badler (Diana from V) when we were about 12; her mother was roommates with my mother in college.
Guilty as charged.
I went to a conference on civil rights in the early 90s in Memphis. I was one of 50 college students invited to attend, and one evening they had a “collegian’s night.” They even brought in a band to play for us. After they played for the 50 of us some of us hung out at a fountain and talked to the band. The band? Ben Harper.
I worked with and was good friends with Laura House, who starred in the MTV show “Austin Stories” in the 90s and wrote for Blue Collar TV. She was in a movie with Natalie Portman as well. I embarassed her once by visiting her high school class and calling her “Laura” instead of “Ms. House.” Oops.
Another friend of mine is a cartoonist and wrote/sketched for Spongebob Squarepants and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. He has a series in development now for the Cartoon Network. His name is Carl Greenblatt.
I’ve got a few other college friends who have received acclaim in their fields, but I don’t know if they qualify as “famous” - I think most of the people I’ve mentioned are in some phase of “pre-fame.”
Hmm, you might be on to something. All of my neighbors live there, even though I don’t.
In high school, I used to be the sole girl in a circle of local acquaintances and friends who hung out on BBS’es. One of the guys liked to draw and had a raunchy sense of humor – we got along pretty well. I still have a stuffed Taz he gave me. Good times.
Fast forward a few years later. Other bunches of friends and I are chatting on IRC, and they get to praising this well known webcomic to the skies. I get curious so I go over to click on the link to his website and poke around. When I get to the bio section…
Cue me falling out of my chair and completely losing it – it’s the SAME GUY. All the facts matched up. Good gods and little fishes. When I could pick myself up again, I thought that was pretty darned awesome, but unfortunately we’d lost touch in the intervening years.
I went to school with Ginnifer Goodwin(back when she was Jennifer 
) She’s a couple of years older than me, but it’s a small school, so I’m sure we spoke. Her sister Melissa is a year older than me. They both switched schools later on, but their mom was the computer teacher for years.
-Lil
Hey, Sophistry and Illusion - I was friends with Billy Crudup’s older brother Tommy when we were in grade school in Dallas, many moons ago.
growing up as a rich bitch in nashville you meet all the country music people at least once. I’m still friends with crystal gale’s daughter. At school I was in kindergarten when Reese Witherspoon was in 8th grade there. She babysat for me and my friend once. I think at that time she was already modeling though and starting to get into movies.
I went to high school and Hebrew school and was involved in theatre with Zach Gilford, now starring in the excellent ‘Friday Night Lights’. We were never close, but we were in lots of classes together and we assistant-directed each other at different times. He was always very… self-possessed, I guess.
In one episode of the show he mentions (in character) the name of a girl (I think implying she was a girlfriend of his or something like that). She was indeed a girlfriend of his in high school… nice shout-out to her!
And me. Frikkin’ green line…
I met Bill Gates, before IBM, when he was negotiating his own contracts. Bought some driver interfaces from him.
I went to high school with Rebecca Romijn (my mom was her English teacher one year), Chidi Ahanotu (his younger and older brothers were both quite the academic standouts) and Kevin Cadogan (formerly of Third Eye Blind).
One of my friends went to high school with Demi Moore and Youree Harris - better known as “Miss Cleo” of infomercial-psychic-hotline-busted-by-the-FBI fame.
Oh, and I guess anyone who met me before mid-2001 knew me before my 15 minutes of fame
Speaking of webcomics, I met a guy over a diary site a loooong time ago. He was really shy, the pour-your-heart-out type. He went through some rough times, as did I. We corresponded a lot, sometimes over email. Later, things started looking up for him. His comic was picked up an is now pretty big.
I haven’t emailed him in years but I’m sure he’d still remember me. Not too impressive, but that’s all I got.