Was invited by Sam Kinison to go to Vegas after a new years eve show. It was 2 in the AM, but my buddy and I did consider it. (I’m lucky to still be alive).
When I worked for a Volvo dealer in Santa Monica, I had many famous customers: Paul Newman & Joann Woodward; Robert Wagner; Fred MacMurray; George Segal; Richard Benjamin. All were charming. I enjoyed chatting with them. But when Randy Newman was parked in the driveway, my boss and I stood around saying “You go talk to him”, “No You go talk to him.” We were too intimidated!
My big moment, however, was calling Cary Grant’s house to tell his wife her maid’s car was ready, and HE answered the phone: “'Ello” he said, and I totally forgot what I was supposed to say!
Wow!
I called Mae West once–she was actually listed in the L.A. phone book. She picked up the phone and said, in her unmistakable Mae West voice, “Mmmmm, hello?” And I said, “Is Mae West in?” And she said, “Mmmm, no, this is her maid. Mmmm, she ain’t in.”
Of course, there’s a possibility that everyone who worked for her wound up talking like her after a few weeks.
Paul and Randy Newman drive Volvos? Nah, can’t be.
I have two.
In the '70’s, my dad was in the Air Force, and one of the other officers in his squadron got tranferred to another base. (Rumor was it was a bit of a punishment for saying some things critical of Air Force policy after a crash.) From there, he got a plum assignment to a diplomatic post; the American Embassy in Tehran. I think he was the senior military officer among the hostages. After the release he retired and moved back to the area, and lived on my paper route. Spoke at my school, too, absolutely fascinating.
And for a while in the late '90’s I worked for a company that was owned by a company that was run by Joe Cocker’s brother. Met him once.
Even Johnny Carson (who I never met) has moments like this. He was once talking about having Stan Laurel on his show and said he got so mesmerized by the fact that Stan Laurel sounds exactly like Stan Laurel, that he couldn’t follow the thread of their conversation.
So how does it feel to have your ex girlfriend be a lesbian icon?
(I have to admit that I love her work, but I never understood the creepy stalker fansite impulse.)
One of my best friends in college was the nephew of Pulitzer prize winning poet WD Snodgrass. WDS went to my college and one of his poems is (oddly enough) about the men’s room in the college chapel. Ladies and gentlemen, I have been in that men’s room. And I’m a girl.
I now live in a small town only 7 miles from Johnson Space Center, aka “Houston” in “Houston, we’ve got a problem.” On Saturday nights a local English pub, The Bayview Duck, has live Celtic music and in 2003 while we were celebrating my friend’s 21st birthday a guest singer went onstage to sing him Happy Birthday and a few requests. The singer? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, fresh from a mission on the International Space Station. How cool is that?
Oh, and my stepfather was best friends with the poet Jack Gilbert since high school.
Out of curiosity, did other students know about the popularity of Woody’s dad as a suspect in JFK conspiracy theories? I’ve read that his father (currently in prison for murdering a judge) is a subject that is totally off limits in interviews.
Bah. Jesus talks to me.
He told me (and everybody else) that his dad had died when he was a child. Nobody who knew him knew about his father until it hit the tabloids when he worked on Cheers.
Yeah, but I can’t remember what part you played in MADWOMAN.
Truthfully, I can’t remember what Woody played. Somewhere I have to have my program! Oy!
When I tell people about Leo (who really does deserve more fame than he has), I usually jog people’s memories by noting his “fill-in for Dr. Joel” episode of NORTHERN EXPOSURE, or his Doctor leading the “clean-up” crew to get the plague victims out of the church in THE STAND.
I’ve always thought Clint Allen should have become better known. I do remember his part in MADWOMAN. But I best remember him & Woody as Bryan & Darrow in INHERIT THE WIND.
And I wonder whatever happened to Shawn Litzsinger (on whom I had a bad crush.)
I talked to his brother I think in 1985. He went there about a year at least. Anyway, he told me he asked his dad to give him some insight into what made his dad tick & Dad Harrelson supposedly said “Read The Fountainhead ten times.”
That’s the only mention I heard of his Dad by either of them.
Incidentally, I remember Woody on Carson telling about rooming with Clint & taking The Fountainhead whenever he moved. Carson started giving him some advice & then said “I’m not trying to sound like your Dad.” Woody changed the subject REAL quick.
Hmm. I guess his dad turned murderous as a response to bad writing.
I read in one of the tabloids (so reliability factor of “maybe… probably not”) that Woody was “unable” to make one of his high school reunions so he sent a videotape of himself at his mansion talking about the losers he went to school with and naming the names of the ones he particularly hated. (Apparently he was majorly picked on in school.)
He was rumored to be gay in the tabloids for the longest time due to his attendance at gay pride marches, etc., but it seems he was actually not only straight but something of a ladies man before settling down. Was he very popular with the ladies in college?
The idea for the superflous nipple on Chandler from Friends came from my friend Chandler who was friends with one of the writers of the show. My friend actually has a “nubbin” and I guess she thought that was pretty funny, so she put it in the show.
I always thought that was pretty cool, despite his hideous deformity. 
(j/k)
I once (accidentally) surprised Teller, of Penn and Teller fame, enough that he broke from his ‘silent’ on-stage image.
And I know a bunch of folks in the RPG industry… But that’s sort-of ‘limited’ fame, I guess.
Second Miner
He was also Kevin Costner’s adjutant in No Way Out, and he gave Kevin Bacon the joint in the bathroom in Footloose. His older brother John was on Broadway and then became an acting coach, I believe.
I had such a crush on Clint–he was just absolutely gorgeous. Of course, I was an evangelical Christian at the time trying desperately to smother the “urges” and pass as straight.
I don’t know–maybe there’s some info on the alumni pages of the Hanover web site. I lost track of everyone from college after graduation.
He had a steady girlfriend for a long while, but yes, the girls liked him. He was really goodlooking when we were at school.
I don’t know if he counts as a celebrity, but Congressman Mike Pence was my fraternity brother and lived next door to me in the Fiji house.
We have Fiji’s in congress now?!
Man, what’s the country coming to. 