# Famous or notable people your or your family has seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 15, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230 "2018-05-15T17:50:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/21 "2018-05-15T22:07:08Z")
I took a piss next to Tommy Lasorda at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida one year during spring training. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/22 "2018-05-15T22:36:15Z")
Had my picture taken with Cliff Robertson. Got within 10’ of Harry Chapin after a show. I saw Maya Angelou have a drink at the place where my sister tended bar. My folks met Pope John Paul II when he was a mere cardinal My sister talked with Stefan Pastis. My cousin met Bobby Vinton. Supposedly, my husband’s family includes one of Dean Martin’s ex-wives and Jerry West, of NBA fame. We don’t move in very famous circles. Plus most of the folks on my list are dead… ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/23 "2018-05-15T22:52:18Z")
Saw Paul Keating (ex Australian PM) in the QVB (upscale shopping mall) one time. He was wearing dark glasses and a really nice suit. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/24 "2018-05-15T22:59:03Z")
I knew both Dave Chappelle and Patton Oswalt pretty well when they were starting out and also used to hang out with Sarah Silverman when she came to DC. I also met Louis CK when he was starting out. I’m still friends with someone who stays in touch with everyone. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/25 "2018-05-15T23:02:51Z")
These are people I’ve actually met: Isaac Asimov Leonard Bernstein Ernest Borgnine Michael Feinstein Jose Feliciano Allen Ginsburg Alan Greenspan Joel Grey Keith Hering Sir Edmund Hillary Janis Ian Larry Kramer “Cubby” O’Brien (original Mouseketeer/drummer) Luciano Pavarotti Bernadette Peters Ayn Rand Vito Russo Stephen Sondheim Frank Spangenburg (longtime ‘90s _Jeopardy!_ champion) Micky Spillane Barbra Streisand Garry Trudeau Back in the 1920s, when my mom was about 13, she was a winner of an art competition, and won a trip in a biplane, plus her picture taken with Orville Wright (half of the Wright Brothers). The kid who would become my father was the other winner, but his mom wouldn’t let him go. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/26 "2018-05-15T23:12:26Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Had dinner at a table next to Newt Gingrich and then saw him doing his grocery shopping at a Giant a month or so later. I saw John Edwards in the deli/produce section of my local grocery after his affair with Rielle Hunter had been revealed and his wife had kicked him out. The first thing that came to my mind was that he was touching the food, and I knew where those hands had been. Ew. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/27 "2018-05-15T23:20:17Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If it was a beautiful day, could you have met him twice? Ha! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/28 "2018-05-15T23:46:43Z")
I got some battered paperbacks signed by Spider Robinson, when he came to a used bookstore in East Lansing, Michigan. Seen some scifi celebs. George Takei was really cool, and paid a lot of attention to the fans at the table when several of us won a drawing to have dinner with him. Same thing next year with James Doohan, except he was half drunk and didn’t seem to care about the fans. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/29 "2018-05-15T23:47:39Z")
My father sold a bag of sandwiches to Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. Their bus had stopped at a West Virginia restaurant when they had a traveling review in the early 1960s. I attended a meeting with Steve Jobs in the early 1990s. My office had bought a whole bunch of NeXT machines, and he stopped by to discuss their features with programmers. I saw Jamie Foxx do standup at a small comedy club in DC. He was still obscure enough that the newspaper ad subtitled his name, “Ugly girl on ‘In Living Color’”. My date and I were the only white people in the first few rows, and Foxx greeted us and deadpanned that it was good to see more of us getting out, in the wake of the recent LA riots. ---
**Author:** ![Graymalkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@Graymalkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graymalkin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/30 "2018-05-16T01:59:36Z")
Got Ted Williams’ autograph during intermission at a cinerama movie in Boston way back when (he was still playing). Was on an airplane returning to NY from Puerto Rico with the whole of Sha Na Na in early 70s. Was manning the register in the men’s dept. when Jackie O was shopping at Saks Fifth Ave for a jacket for John-John’s 21st birthday. Shook Bill’s and Al’s hands when they were campaigning in '92 in Madison, WI. Passed Steve Martin on the street in NYC in '80s. Someone was yelling at him and he was pissed off. Ahh, NYC… . ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/31 "2018-05-16T02:09:06Z")
Define seen. As in been in the same room? Barack obama, Bill Clinton, several senators and authors. I’ve spoke to Mike Pence before (he was a rep from my state once, and i talked to him about the Iraq war). Other than that, not many people. As for OP, you probably saw one of Saddam Hussein’s body doubles. He likely wouldn’t just enter a hotel without a massive amount of security beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/32 "2018-05-16T02:19:25Z")
I’ve had conversations, or at least exchanged words with: Al Gore (I’ve met him twice) Jane Goodall (I took her on a tour of the Biomuseo in Panama, where I was curator) Frank Gehry (I worked with him on the Biomuseo, which he designed) Christopher Reeve (I lived in the same dorm as him as an undergraduate) Jared Diamond Paul Ehrlich (I took him birding in Panama) Michael Collins (Apollo 11 astronaut; I had breakfast with him in 1979) Omar Moreno (baseball player; I went on a birding trip with him) Ruben Blades (actor and salsa musician) E.O. Wilson (biologist and Pulitzer Prize winner; I had dinner with him) Aaron Copeland (I had dinner with him) Mariel Hemingway (I had lunch with her) Al Kooper Panamanian President Nicholas Barletta Celebrities I’ve shaken hands with: Peter Matthiessen John Lindsay Richard Leakey Panamanian Presidents Ernesto Perez Balladares, Martin Torrijos, and Ricardo Martinelli, and Vice-President Ricardo Arias Calderon Ones I’ve been within 10 feet of: Ted Turner and Jane Fonda The Dalai Lama Rigoberta Menchu (Nobel Peace Prize winner) Bo Diddley Michael Bloomberg Panamanian Presidents Mireya Moscoso and Juan Carlos Varela People I’ve seen give lectures: Stephen Jay Gould Carl Sagan Hans Bethe (Nobel Physics Prize winner) Louis Leakey Margaret Mead Alan Ginsberg William S. Burroughs Gary Snyder Gregory Corso Ken Kesey William Shatner I’m not listing performers I’ve seen in concert or on stage, or baseball players I’ve seen play or at Old Timers Games. During WWII, my father was on the USS _Eldorado_, the flagship at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He would have seen most of the top brass of the Pacific War. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/33 "2018-05-16T02:25:29Z")
I don’t know how this happened, but I ended up right next to Jackie at a museum in DC many decades ago. I met Greg LeMond a couple times. Friend of a friend. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/34 "2018-05-16T02:41:24Z")
Saw Jennifer Aniston backstage after a Broadway play (my wife’s friend did the makeup). Met award-winning children’s author\illustrator Ted Lewin when he gave a talk to a group of librarians at Brooklyn Public. I see “free money” guy Matthew Lesko at Whole Foods occasionally. Ditto former Detroit Piston Adrian Dantly. Billie Jean King and Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes visited the school where I work a few years ago. Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty had kids at another school where I worked. Pro wrestlers Raven and Molly Holly read to kids at in another library where I worked. During college I was a server at a dinner where Arthur Schlesinger spoke. I got to ask him a question. Many years later, my then 10 year old son got to ask George Will a question at a Washington Nationals fanfest Q&A I met author Nora Roberts somewhere or another (my mother-in-law knows her). ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/35 "2018-05-16T03:07:03Z")
Oh, I forgot some. My creative writing teacher was a minor science fiction author (Sheila Finch) and she knew just about everybody in the field. She would have famous authors come to talk to us about how to write. We had Larry Niven, David Brin, and Octavia Butler come to talk to us. She invited the whole class to her house for a Christmas party, and Harry Turtledove was there. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/36 "2018-05-16T03:20:05Z")
Endless politicians. The Clintons. The Gores GHWB and Barbara Gerald Ford (I was very young) Too many Senators and Congressmen to count Jeanne Kirkpatrick (she said she liked my work)(and she gave me a cookie…hand baked!) Ted Strickland (former Governor of Ohio) Rich Cordray (for Attorney General of Ohio and D candidate for governor this year) Athletes Ryne Sandberg Gregg Zaun Frank Robinson Brooks Robinson Darryl Green Scottie Pippen (in line at Pecos Bills at Disney World) Entertainers Joan Jett Taylor Swift (at age 19) Stan Lee Dave Sim Steven Colbert Vin Diesel Gene Simmons Joey Ramone (he bummed a quarter off me) Steve Cropper (played on stage with him) Chuck Berry Terry Moore Frank Cho Sergio Aragones Will Eisner Newsies Helen Thomas Tom Brokaw Christiane Amanpour Miscellaneous Lord British (Richard Garriott) Sid Meier John Carmack Katherine Graham Ed Zotti Others that will doubtless come to mind the second I hit the ‘post’ button. Most of them professionally. Occasionally personally or some other means. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/37 "2018-05-16T03:39:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I shook hands with Gerald Ford once at a speech he was giving. My parents met Ford at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the law school. And more recently my mother met Padma Lakshmi at a private party. I think I saw Andy Grove outside a restaurant in San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/38 "2018-05-16T05:47:43Z")
At last count, I’ve seen 79 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Probably a dozen or so more, pitchers I saw on the field but who didn’t play that day. Got personal autograph from one, Enos Slaughter. Shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Pierre Trudeau. Saw the queen a second time, and waved, but she didn’t act like she recognized me. Worked backstage with Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Dick Clark. My mother played as a child with Les Paul, whose uncle lived next door to her. My ex saw Muhammed Ali at an airport and got his autograph. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/39 "2018-05-16T06:00:41Z")
I remembered two more. Thomas Schaefer was the ranking military officer among the hostages held in Tehran. My dad knew him before he got the diplomatic posting to Iran; they might have even been in the same squadron. He must have liked the area, because after he was released he moved back and lived on my paper route. Of course I never asked him about it, but he gave a talk at my high school. Interesting stuff. I met Randall Munroe, the creator of _xkcd_ at a friend’s birthday party a few years ago. Even played Cards Against Humanity with him. Didn’t know it was him until after he left, though. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230/40 "2018-05-16T07:26:22Z")
Multiple Spanish actors; many of Barcelona’s most famous singers and musicians, just walking down the street. There’s a bar in Plaça Catalunya where I’ve seen many famous musicians enjoying the sight of their fans seeing them 😃 and Prince once came to a concert I was attending (by mistake, I suspect; either he didn’t know that famous club happened to be hosting an RB concert or someone mistook Rockabilly and Rythm’n’Blues). Back home, I went to class with a guy who’s now a movie director, another who became a professional musician, got a couple world-famous cousins… One time during a company dinner at a fancy restaurant, someone remarked on how a guy looked a lot like Javier Bardem. “Naaaah, what would he be doing here?” Eat, I guess? Specially since the blonde lady he was with happened to look a lot like Pilar Bardem, Javier’s mother 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-your-or-your-family-has-seen/814230.md?page=3)