# Meeting a famous person . . . but not knowing it **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 26, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659 "2012-01-26T00:34:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![FrillyNettles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ea924/32.png) [@FrillyNettles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrillyNettles)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659/81 "2012-01-30T01:40:56Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Google is full of shit. I have stood a few feet away from Michael Douglas and he’s 5’7" at best. The height on his official actors profile may be 5’10" but he’s noticeably short man. Interesting, because my BIL’s sister married into the Douglas family, and he and my sister see them at family events. BIL claims Michael is around 5’9". It IS possible he wears lifts to family events, I suppose. ---
**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:** [January 30, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659/82 "2012-01-30T03:41:57Z")
Not quite what the OP asked, but the closest I’ve got. When I met Laura Gainey, everybody seemed rather impressed that her father was Bob Gainey. I’m not a hockey fan, or Canadian; had never heard of him. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659/83 "2012-01-30T12:41:44Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Wasn’t the beard a dead giveaway? Well, it narrows it down, yeah, but two of them have long beards. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659/84 "2012-01-30T15:20:20Z")
This happened to my uncle about 10 years ago. He was somewhere around New Orleans, and stopped at a bar to throw a few beers back. As he pulled in he saw an old pickup truck in the parking lot, and a cop behind the truck with its lights on. The cop was writing a ticket. My uncle went in to the bar, and visited the bathroom first. As he was taking a whiz, they guy who just received a ticket from the cop walked in to the bathroom and took a whiz in the adjacent urinal. The guy told my uncle he just received a ticket for an open container in a vehicle. As they were both exiting the bathroom, someone walked up and asked the other guy for an autograph. My uncle watched him write his name on the piece of paper: **Billy Gibbons**. Perhaps ZZ Top was playing nearby? My uncle didn’t ask. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659/85 "2012-01-30T16:36:05Z")
A few years back, a friend and I were out hitting a few bars in the Pittsburgh area. At one of them, a rather short and swarthy mook wearing a lot of gold jewelry bummed several cigarettes off me. I didn’t otherwise pay much attention to him and he was mostly occupied with chatting up a woman sitting on his other side. As we were on our way to another bar, my friend asked me if I had recognized the cigarette leech as the goalie from the Pittsburgh Penquins. I had not, and while I hadn’t begrudged him the smokes as just some mook, I did get irritated that a well-paid professional athlete had mooched off me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meeting-a-famous-person-but-not-knowing-it/610659.md?page=4)