I really don’t have much to offer, I have shook hand with some famous pro golfer including Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. And some Hall of Fame baseball players including WillieMays and Sandy Koufax
My father’s direct supervisor was J. Edgar Hoover, and he ate breakfast several times a week with William Mark Felt. Dad retired from the FBI in 1971, he always suspected the Felt was Deep Throat but obviously, he didn’t know for sure.
Met Charles Lindbergh,
Shook Nelson Mandellas hand twice.
Shared a bucket of chicken with Jim Mc Kay.
Tossed a football with Mohammed Ali.
Saw James Caan buying steak knives.
Mike Shannon
Whitey Herzog
Scott Rolen
Scott Spezio
Yadier Molina
Adam Wainwright
Rick Ankiel
Tony LaRussa
Jim Edmonds
Albert Pujols
Stan Musial
Red Schoendienst
John Rooney
Hawk Harrelson
Ron Kittle
Carlton Fisk
Ted Nugent
Reo Speedwagon
Trace Adkins
Joan Jett
Cheap Trick
Foghat
Jim Peterik
Loretta Lynn
Danny Bonaduce
Stan Mikita
Jerry Springer
Seka
Oliver North
Candace Parker
Alonzo Spellman
Steve Kerr
B.B. King
Charlie Daniels (and his band)
Ann and Nancy Wilson
George Thorogood
Some of them were a meet and greet functions, some were from events I’ve worked.
Ronald Reagan from a distance. He happened to be in a Disneyland parade in 1990.
John Kerry - shook hands, actually more of an awkwardly long hand-grasp, in July 2004 in Philly.
Barack Obama - shook hands in February 2009 in East Rutherford, NJ.
Ted Kennedy - shook hands in February 2009 in East Rutherford, NJ. He was sweating quite a bit and didn’t look very healthy.
Caroline Kennedy and Robert De Niro were there was well.
Robert Plant sat a few tables down from us at a Les Paul show at Fat Tuesday’s in NYC (he was with Brian Setzer).
On the same trip: my brother and I ran into Billy Crystal on the observation deck of the World Trade Center.
Harlan Ellison was a speaker at the first San Jose Sci-Fi Film Festival. He was hosting a showing of “A Boy And His Dog”. He autographed my copy of Partners In Wonder.
I stood around waiting for a Best Buy to open with **Tony Gwynn ** one time.
A friend of mine was in a band with Zappa’s sax player, Napoleon Brock. I bought some weed from him.
I have met a ton, and posted in a thread like this before. Working in the film industry kind of does it.
Sandra Bullock- nice as can be, likes beer
Jeff Goldblum- really tall and cool
Vin Diesel- borrowed my lighter and talked to me about Texas for awhile, very goodlooking
When I worked on Scrubs, I met Zach Braff, who totally sucked, and the rest of the cast was nice. A few weeks later I saw The Janitor at the Brass Monkey singing karoake, he did really well.
Worked on Boston Public, Michael Rappaport was ok, but thought he was way funnier than he is, exactly the same as he is onscreen, Jeri Ryan was kind of a bitch and not as pretty in real life, the big principal guy was so sweet, told me to eat at The Apple Pan
Juliana Hatfield- very shy and gorgeous eyes
Jenna Bush lived across the street from me in college,she was cool, her secret service guys would always park in my spot and there was nothing I could do about it.
MC Chris (if anyone here knows about him)- stayed at his place in Atlanta and he put me in one of his songs
Matthew McConaughey- saw him around Austin, he was usually pretty stinky, very nice
Saw Lindsay Lohan get kicked out of Bar Marmount, she must have been 16 or 17, she was screaming and drunk
William Shatner- totally plays himself in real life, nice guy (I met him and Sandra working on Miss Congeniality)
Lord, I can go on and on. I will say that I am very jealous of the people that have met Green Day. Seen them in concert many times, never gotten to meet them. I would probably keel over. And Nathan Fillion!! Oh, I would just die!
I was always shocked that when I lived in LA, I never ran into Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, because they were partying hard at all the same places as I. Oh well. Oh! Vince Vaughn all the time at a few bars in Los Feliz.
Princess Margaret !
Summer of 75
She borrowed and wore my rubber boots and I specially made her a cup of coffee over a bunsen burner.
Emmanuel Lewis (Webster) - having a beer at a bar in Atlanta (and yes, seeing Webster having a beer causes a severe double-take)
Michael Stipe - Brushed past me to get to the stage for a surprise performance at a small club once. Another time, I was at a Pylon show and noticed Stipe was standing next to me dancing to the music. Have also run into other R.E.M. members on other occasions.
Dick Sargent (Darren II from Bewitched) - at a sports bar in Atlanta. He was dressed in some weird nautical-themed outfit.
Grant Hill - Ran into him on an elevator after a Duke game.
Billy Corgan - at a Hawks-Bulls game in Atlanta
Morris Day (of Morris Day and the Time) - He’s a friend of my sister and came to one of her parties
John Edwards - shook his hand at a campaign event
I worked at the world’s most popular museum for 12 years and was fortunate enough to meet quite a few famous people in that time, including:
Astronauts/aviators:
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, on the 20th anniversary of the moon landing. (Got their autographs on a book they wrote.)
Alan Shepard (first American in space)
Jim Lovell (Apollo 13 astronaut)
Chuck Yeager (he spoke at NASM every year. He’s a jerk.)
Scott Crossfield (first man to reach Mach 2: very nice guy)
Patty Wagstaff (World Aerobatic Champion)
Hans von Ohain (inventor of the first German jet engine)
Actors/entertainers:
Jack Nicholson
John Denver
Ron Silver
Tom Cruise
Others:
Walter Cronkite. I gave him an impromtu tour of the Enola Gay exhibit.
Al Gore, before he was nominated for the VP. I gave him a close up tour of the Spirit of St. Louis, which at the time had been taken down for repair work.
Larry King. Gave him a tour of the museum.
Philip Morrison (Manhattan project physicist and author)
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
Kurt Vonnegut
Since leaving the museum about 11 years ago, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a number of other interesting people:
James Cameron
Harrison Ford: I attended a recording session for an IMAX film he narrated. Very nice, unassuming, and shy.
Director Brett Leonard (The Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity)
Producer Frank Marshall (Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and dozens of other extremely popular films): I interviewed him about an IMAX film he produced.
Writer/Director Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura)
Penn and Teller
James Randi (I applied for a job as executive director of JREF. Didn’t get it.)
Jeffrey DeMunn (character actor in The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, etc.): I had dinner with him during a break while he was playing Lincoln in a filming of the assassination at Ford’s Theater.
I did a phone interview with Paul Shaffer (Letterman’s band leader) a few years ago.
I interviewed the founders and original performers of the Blue Man Group last fall.
Just last week, Robert Beltran (Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager and Jerry Flute on Big Love) was waiting to board the same plane as me at LAX, but I didn’t talk to him.
I’ve also met the directors and producers of virtually every IMAX film ever made, and I’m good friends with many of them.
Met briefly at book signings over the years:
Mario Andretti
Isaac Asimov
Daniel Dennett
Murray Gell-Mann
Milton Glaser
Thor Heyerdahl
Garrison Keillor
Mark Okrand (inventor of Klingon language)
Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer)
Richard Rhodes
There are probably a few I’ve forgotten.
Back in the late 1970s, I was a friend of Michael’s, mixed sound for him in live performances and a few demo tapes, and dated (once) the woman he later married.
But all of this pales in significance to the evening I spent in Las Vegas a few years ago, having drinks with Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and Kari Byron.
[Ah, lovely Kari.]
Let’s see, most no one has probably heard of, my boyfriend did shows with industrial bands, Covenantl, Rotersand, Bella Morte as well as many smaller industrial and electronic groups. I did hospitality arrangements for the bands and all of these were very nice. The guys from Rotersand were particularily impressed with my fruit platter. I have no idea why, it was a regular store boughten fresh fruit platter and you would have thought it was loaded with fresh never seen before delicacies served only to reclining pashas by nubile young serving girls.
I’ve also worked as EMS for Summerfest, the local music festval. It attracts many large names and I was working the ampitheater for serveral concerts, and had occasion to meet and sometimes dispense care to several celebrites like Britney Spears, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Garth Brooks, Weird Al (REALLY nice guy), No Doubt, and Christina Aguillera. Christina was especially nice, she came down to the EMS room to ask for some bandaids for her heels. She had worn blisters on them walking around the festival all day. She sat and talked with us for about a half hour, just by herself. She seemed very warm and genuine.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward - I’d always heard they were both unpretentious, genuinely nice people and I found that to be true. Chatted with them both briefly on a few occasions and the second time Joanne greeted me by name and Paul said it was good to see me again!
Keir Dullea - you might not recognize the name but he was Dave in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another really nice, non-Hollywood guy. He is a friend of a friend so I’ve talked to him several times. He once, almost apologetically, mentioned 2001 in the context of telling a related story. He did so because he presumed I didn’t know who he was. Funny.
Christopher Plummer - talked to him briefly before an awards ceremony. As smooth and elegant in real life as he is on stage and in movies.
Ed McBain - real name Evan Hunter- author of the “87th Precinct” novels. I guess I’ve never met an obnoxious celebrity. Another low-key, friendly guy.
Joe Jackson - in the early 80’s he dated a girl from my neighborhood in Manhattan. We hung out in the same bar, which no longer exists. Funny, and funny-looking, guy. I had a hard time understanding him, though, especially when he’d had a few.
Patty Hearst - I was working in a copy shop/service bureau years ago and she came in for color copies (back when that sort of thing was relatively new.) I spent hours with her copying photos of a family house in California that got destroyed in a flood. She had a great sense of humor and chatted happily with whoever was around.
The first time she came in she asked if she could pay for an inexpensive item with a 50 dollar bill. Said she was avoiding the banks. 
It wasn’t until much later that I got it. :smack:
I was walking down 60th street in Manhattan a few years ago and Alex Rodriguez suddenly popped out an unmarked door. I couldn’t believe how huge he was. He’s only an inch taller than me but he’s wide as a linebacker, with pads. Even then I didn’t think about PED’s.
From the world of politics:
Evan Bayh - former governor of Indiana (did campaign work for him)
Tim Roemer - former US Representative from Indiana (campaigned for him)
Jim Jontz - former US Representative from my hometown in Indiana (campaigned for him)
Dick Lugar - US senator from Indiana
Barbara Bush - former US first lady (watched her plant a tree in Hermann Park in Houston)
Phil Bredesen - Governor of Tennessee
Al Gore - former US vice president (I used to live a few miles from his family farm in Tennessee)
Lamar Alexander - US senator from Tennessee
Barack Obama - US president (I got to see him during the debate at Belmont University)
Sports:
Todd Benzinger - former Cincinnati Red (I caught his first major league grand slam ball and got to meet him at a bar popular with the players later that night)
Chris Sabo - former Cincinnati Red (met him and several teammates at the same bar, but he sticks out more in my mind)
Gale Sayers - former Chicago Bear (he bought into a business close to where I used to live and got involved with some community endeavors)
Music:
Crystal Gayle - she used to babysit for my sibs and me when she was still Brenda Webb
the late Billy Walker - we used to eat dinner at the same Chinese place on Monday nights
the late Bill Monroe - I used to wait on him when I helped out at a friend’s club
Ricky Skaggs - worked with him in the studio
the Cash / Carter family - I’ve met most of them at one time or another out at the lake
Randy Travis - ran into him at Hardee’s one Sunday morning
Kitty Wells / Johnny Wright - old timers at the Opry, they lived next door to a former BF’s mom and showed up from time to time at backyard cookouts
Not counting concerts and things of that nature where I have just seen the person at a distance, I have had face-to-face exchanges with:
Cherry Jones
Sondra Locke
Hal Bynum
Del Reeves
Mother Maybelle Carter
Norman Dello Joio
DJ Fontana
Johnny Duncan
Tupper Saussy
I played in simultaneous chess exhibitions with:
Larry Evans
Lev Alburt
Lubomir Kavalek
Now, if you were to ask any of these people if they remember me, I’d bet every one of them would say, “No.”
As for “famous” I assumed a page at Wikipedia qualified. If not, I left the others off that some might know of as at least “well known.”
Shook hands and chatted briefly with HRH Prince Edward on two separate occasions.
Met Pierre Eliott Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada, on a train trip through the Rockies - he was taking his sons on a holiday. At one of the stops, he got out and chatted with anyone who came by. Very low-key. Later, the train was stopped at a station and we seemed to be waiting longer than usual - I was looking down the platform and saw him running after one of his kids who was running down the platform, scooped the kid up up, and ran back to catch the train. (Also saw him a few years earlier at a campaign stop, where he took questions from the crowd - open mike, anyone who stood in line could ask him a question; lasted about an hour after his planned remarks.)
Walked out of my building at work going for coffee one day, and shook hands with Jean Chétien, another Prime Minister of Canada. Turned out he was glad-handing on the street for a campaign, and I just happened to step out and into the end of the line as he came by. Then I went for coffee as planned. It was a bit surreal.
Met Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan, at the Roughriders fan parade at the 2007 Grey Cup in Toronto. He was suitably attired in a Riders jersey. Green is the Colour!
Have met various Supreme Court of Canada judges at Canadian Bar Association events over the years. One in particular stands out - Justice Gonthier, doing some crazy twisting at a dance at a national CBA function. He was in his early 70s and really having a good time, grooving to the music. Somehow, not the sort of thing you expect of an SCC judge.
Vincent Schiavelli, I think you mean.
I’ve seen close-up (but admittedly not approached):
Kevin from Project Runway Season 4 (right by FIT, not surprisingly)
Chloe Sevigny (at a Morrissey concert)
I’ve spoken to:
a few of the guys from the 2008 season Jets
the guys from Motorhead (at a signing)
Harry Carson (a former NY Giants linebacker)
Gerri Jewell
Paula Cole
Mick Foley
kurtwood smith is married to an ex-girlfriend of my dad’s and they came to visit and have dinner with us once a while ago. probably one of the most mellow and down to earth people i have ever met. nice guy, too. we talked about shakespeare and he gave me his e-mail address, telling me i should call them if i’m ever in california.
the rest of my encounters with famous people have mostly been indie rockers and stuff that i’ve hung out with after shows. i hung out with steve schiltz of longwave for a while after a show when i was fourteen and it was totally illegal for me to even be there. i got hugs from all three members of au revoir simone at a show not too long ago - one of them was totally checking me out, too. they ended up putting one of my songs on a mixtape for their friends, which was totally cool. i had an awkward conversation with owen pallett after a show once, and on another occasion in montreal the dude just brushed right past me in the street without even so much as an “excuse me.” i went to see a show by the national and the singer matt berninger wound up putting on my pink sunglasses while on stage. the drummer from aerosmith sent his kid the same elementary school as mine.
Al Gore - Met him during the 1988 New Hampshire primary campaign, shook hands and said hi. Ditto Jesse Jackson, Dick Gephardt and Paul Simon. I met Simon again later that year and he admired my bowtie (which I wore in his honor).
Mike Dukakis - Interviewed by him along with a half-dozen other prospective staffers early that year; saw him several times up close while working on the campaign. Nice guy, very low-key.
**
John Kerry** - Shook hands during a fundraiser in Cleveland in 2004.
Edward Herrmann and Alec Guinness - Briefly met both at the stage door and got their autographs after they appeared in London in A Walk In the Woods. Guinness was pretty cross at a German fan who asked him to sign Obi-Wan pictures (“You’re just going to sell these, aren’t you?”), but signed anyway. Herrmann couldn’t have been more WASPily charming.
Jeremy Brett - Got his autograph and spoke briefly at the stage door after he appeared in a Sherlock Holmes stage play.
Met and spoke with Roger Rees and Ben Kingsley (separately) after they’d appeared in RSC productions in the fall of '85 during my semester abroad in London. Rees sat next to me and once grabbed my arm while talking very animatedly; a gay friend who was in the room told me later that he was very jealous.
Was in the room when retired notable Cold War diplomat George F. Kennan gave a press conference.
Eight years ago, picked historian and novelist Shelby Foote up at the airport and later had lunch with him, one-on-one, when he was in town for a speaking engagement. A charming Southern gentleman in every way. May he rest in peace.
Met and spoke briefly twice with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson. A very low-key, thoughtful guy.
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan - Saw them drive by as I stood on a Washington, D.C. street corner.
Bill Clinton - Shook hands and spoke briefly during the 1992 campaign. What most struck me at the time were the huge bags under his eyes.
Bill Cobbs, a character actor you’ve probably seen in a zillion TV shows and movies (most recently in Night at the Museum), appeared in court and testified before me a few years back - he owns some rental properties in town: Bill Cobbs - IMDb
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer - Met and spoke briefly when I was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court bar. It was a law fraternity event late in the Court’s term that year; I was close enough to hear Ginsburg mutter as she headed for the door, “Now back to work!”
I interviewed Supreme Court nomineee Robert Bork for my local newspaper when he spoke a nearby college. He smoked like a chimney but was a nice guy.
Justice Antonin Scalia - Met and had dinner with him when he came and spoke at my law school; I was in student government at the time. Charming and avuncular; I just disagree with him on virtually everything!
David McCullough - Have corresponded with him a little over the years, and have met him twice at public events. He and I went to the same high school, many years apart.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu - Shook hands and welcomed him when he was commencement speaker at my college.
Ohio State football great Archie Griffin - Ditto, when he spoke at my elementary school as part of a “Reading is Fun-damental” event in the mid-Seventies. I’d won an essay contest and was on the greeting committee.
**
Sherrod Brown** - Met him during his successful 2006 U.S. Senate campaign. Also Connie Shultz, his Pulitzer Prize-winning wife.
And Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (at the time a relatively obscure congressman) and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (just last week; he’s running for the Senate now), and lots of local mayors, judges and elected officeholders because of my work and political involvement.
My dad dated Judi Dench back in the 1950s and has kept in touch with her off and on since then (he met with her, my mom happily in tow, backstage in her dressing room during her most recent NYC appearance), but I haven’t met her yet - someday, I hope!
Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Sultan Qaboos bin Said
Mr. T
(The first two at the same time… Mr. T wasn’t there tho)
This. I don’t have the time to even remember half the celebrities I’ve seen or met. But much fewer since I left NYC.
Seen at some distance:
Bill Clinton in downtown DC during a Christmas-tree lighting ceremony one year.
The late Queen Mum in Winchester.
To speak to:
Art Garfunkel, at the beginning of his and Paul Simon’s 1983 reunion tour; he was very sweet to me and remembered me when I saw him again near the end of the tour. I saw both several times in concert during that summer.
Denise Crosby, at a Star Trek convention, complimented me on the dress I was wearing.
Andy Robinson and his wife at another Trek convention; we chatted in an elevator.
Also saw, but did not speak to, Alexander Siddig at that same convention.
Jeffrey Coombs (who I’ve always thought rather creepy in the films and TV shows I’ve seen him in, but is actually kind of cute in real life) at another convention.
