Barry Goldwater.
This was around 1988 or so. I was a co-op student at Comsat Laboratories in Maryland, and Mr. Goldwater sat on the board of directors (or something like that). One day he paid a visit to the small lab I was working in. He was in a wheelchair, and some guy in a nice suit was pushing him. The only people in the lab were me, my boss, Barry, and the dude pushing him around.
No way to remember them all, but just based on my phone pics and memory, and only ones that involved direct conversations:
Jorge Posada - three times
Preet Bharara - twice
Sania Mirza
Joe Torre
Bernie Williams
Lorraine Bracco
Patrice O’Neal
George H.W. Bush
Trevor Hoffman
Randall Park
Evander Holyfield
Donald Trump (long before his candidacy)
Jose Canseco
Alexi Lalas
ETA: Ben Bernanke
Bill Gross
I left out a numerous academics that are Nobel Laureates, since I don’t remember them all and I don’t really consider them famous.
I’ve got one of those on my desk at work. Cool how it resembles a IBM card, with his phone numbers punched out. Sadly I didn’t meet him, but my daughter did. So I’ve got a signed copy of his book and the card.
As far as “famous people I’ve met” and had a moderately long conversation with; Only Hal Holbrook comes to mind. A chance meeting outside a theater back when I used to smoke. We were both taking a break for a cigarette. I don’t frequent many places where the famous are found, so unlikely to encounter them.
Steve Hall and his puppet Shotgun Red
My family took a dinner cruise on the General Jackson Showboat at the Nashville Opryland USA park.
We shared an elevator with Steve after the dinner show. Talked very briefly. He was quite nice.
His show with Shotgun Red was very funny.
Spoke with:
Isaac Asimov (book signing)
John Anderson (the 1980 presidential candidate - dinner at SUNY-Binghamton)
Jon Anderson (of Yes) (Madison Square Garden after-party)
Allen Ginsburg (signed my copy of Howl after poetry reading at SUNY-Binghamton)
David Ogilvy (in Ogilvy & Mather cafeteria)
Logan Lerman (at Jack & Bobby meet & greet)
Kieran Culkin (outside broadway theater)
Milton Berle (book signing)
Elvis Costello (brought him tea at WCDB in Albany)
Saw:
Jimmy Carter (at a book signing)
George H. W. Bush (only his hand waving from his car)
Donald Trump (in lobby of Trump Tower)
Macaulay Culkin (side of theater at Madame Melville)
George Burns (book signing)
Cyndi Lauper (book signing)
well, I actually worked with these two:
Arthur Kantrowitz (founder of the Avco Everett Research Lab, member of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society 9which later merged with the L-5 Society0, inventor of the Inter-Aortic Baloon Pump)
Ron McNair – astronaut 9flew o the Challenger), 6th level Shoto-kan Black belt
Others I’ve met and spoken with:
Elizabeth Warren – shook hands with her in Boston’s Chinatown
Isaac Asimov
L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp
Larry Niven
Frederick Pohl
George Zebrowski
Hal Clement
Harlan Ellison
Gary Wolfe (author of who Censored Roger Rabbit?)
David Kyle
Allen Steele
Jack Kirby
I was in several stage musicals with Erland van Lidthe de Jeude (Grossberger in Stir Crazy, Dynamo in the Running Man, where he finally got to sing without being dubbed.)
David Drake and John Steakley are the only two famous people I’ve ever met. And for Mr. Steakley, it was more “sat next to him at a bar, we were both drinking, and swapped banal pleasantries.”
As for Mr. Drake, he autographed a somewhat humorous drawing of a battle-scarred M1A1 Abrams crushing a Russian “jeep” under its treads, and we talked about U.S. Army Tank Warfare & Doctrine in DS/DS vs. Vietnam, and swapped a few emails about the capabilities of modern MBTs.
…except the ‘Really Nice Guy’ spectrum: Todd Rundgren and Bob Feller.
I had dinner once with Persi Diaconis. He’s pretty big in Statistics and Magic circles.
Some of these are bands I’m not completely familiar with so I’m not always sure exactly who I met, but of what I remember from all the concerts I worked that stood out:
Ben Folds - brings his own ping-pong table with him on tour. He kicked my ass twice then I had to go pick up his dinner.
Faith Hill: I ate dinner across the table from her in craft services. Had a good 10 minute chat. I didn’t know she was Faith Hill, otherwise known as the night’s main attraction. She was in a t-shirt and jeans with no makeup. Very nice lady. We talked about the food we were eating and our families, and as I was finishing my meal I casually asked, “So… what do you do for the show?” thinking she was a backup singer or costumer or something like that. She gave me a bemused look, then the amused response: “I am the show.” Embarrassed, I replied, “Faith Hill, it was a real pleasure to meet you” and I slipped out of the room.
“Weird” Al: just as awesome in person as you’d imagine. Super-nice guy. He let me try on the fat suit. Definitely a highlight of my brief concert career.
Jonas Brothers: I talked to two of them. Absolutely no clue which ones. Amusing show to work at; it was at George Mason University and huge crowds of teenage girls and their parents were huddled around everywhere all day long. They’d cheer literally anyone who went into or came out of the backstage area.
Valerie Bertinelli - Van Halen was playing Verizon Center and her and Eddie’s son Wolfgang had just started playing bass for the band on tour. I picked her up from the Four Seasons hotel in Georgetown and drove her to the venue.
The Police - I spoke briefly to Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, but Sting went straight from the bus to the stage to right back on the bus. His rider dictated we set up a room for him with all kinds of shit in it that I had spent most of the day running around town acquiring. He never set foot in it. Dick.
Meat Loaf - played a show at DAR Constitution Hall. Nice man.
I worked the DC101 Chili Cook-Off two years. The 2007 lineup was Jet, Three Days Grace, Buckcherry, Breaking Benjamin, Silversun Pickups, The Bravery, and Minus-One. In 2008 it was Staind, Live, Seether, Finger Eleven, Chevelle, Deaf Pedestrians, and The Blackjacks. I met a whole lot of people those days, and I can’t ID a single one of them. Assume I met at least some of most of these bands.
Marc Anthony - 2009 show at Verizon Center, J. Lo/Marc Anthony tour. I met Marc but not Jennifer.
Trans-Siberia Orchestra: they were dicks. All of them. And their entire team. Fuck them all sideways.
The Eagles - I met Timothy Schmidt and Glenn Frey, but not Don Henley or Joe Walsh.
Widespread Panic - I met John Bell, Dave Schools, and Jimmy Herring. Herring gave me $60 and requested I get him a 9:30 Club sweatshirt. So I drove over there and told the bouncer of my task (Josh; if you ever went to the 9:30 Club in the late 90s through 2013, you know who I’m talking about); I knew him, sorta, so he gave me a good look over, decided I was telling the truth, and he went inside in brought me out a sweatshirt. I asked him what I owed him, and he said, “If it’s for Widespread Panic, no charge.” I’ve always wondered what else I could have gotten out of him. I went back to the venue and gave Jimmy his sweatshirt and his money back.
The only famous person I would actually claim to have had any meaningful interaction with is Richard Herd, who is an absolute prince.
Ah, Eric Heiden.
Believe it or not, he was taking Norwegian language at the UW-Madison, and my big brother was a classmate. This was about a year before he got really famous for his Olympic medals in speed skating. All I remember was his turning around (tall, athletic guy) while sitting in a fixed row of seats, like they have in a small classroom, probably to see why there was a little kid in the room (like, 9 or 10). My brother was probably explaining that he was giving me a tour of the university.
As for other famous people, I once went backstage with a group of friends to see Boston Symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa. I spoke to him in Japanese, which he seemed to think was cool, and returned an autograph to me with a smile. (This was in San Francisco in about 1994. They were a guest orchestra, playing in the hall that usually holds the SF Symphony. They did Mahler’s 2nd. The playing was a bit off; I think they were a bit tired out.)
Donald Sutherland
Clint Eastwood
Jeff Bridges
George Kennedy
Joe Walsh
Andre the Giant
Worked with several, of which I will mention:
The most horrible: Yngwie Malmsteen
The nice:
Serj Tankian
Iron Maiden
Steve Wynn (& Linda & Jason)
Peter Hammil (& band, whose names I dont recall) of Van Der Graaf Generator.
You left out his middle name.
A coworker and I were stuck at an airport gate waiting for a delayed flight with Road Warrior Animal (Joe Laurinaitis) for quite some time. We talked football almost exclusively, not much about wrestling.
Most other “famous” people I’ve actually engaged in conversation are former MLB players that probably aren’t super well known.
I forgot to mention Dennis Rodman earlier. Gambled with him at at a roulette table in Vegas. This was when he was on Detroit and relatively normal. Speaking of Vegas, I was kicked out of a cabana by Warren Sapp. Not sure if that one counts.
Broderick wasn’t famous? This was after War Games and Ferris Bueller, right?