Which famous people have you met?

Cafe Society
81

Jimmy Buffett. We were heading back to our station from the marina/bar and this blonde guy needed a ride to the airfield, so we shot the shit for a bit standing in the back of the stake truck till we got there to drop him off. We didn’t realize who it was until we dug up the album cover that had a photo of his boat which was docked outside the marina. It was too big to enter, so he anchored it outside and took his dinghy (16’ Boston Whaler) in. That sort of thing happened there.

Marnie Nixon. I was stage manager at a community theatre thing in which she was featured.

Sen. John Glenn. He was speaking at the Ohio State Student Union. Just a handshake and a Howdy.

David Bromberg. Shot the shit with him on a break between sets once.

82

My brother-in-law has a local Emmy.

83

Met as in had a conversation with?

Met as in “Yeah, that person was driving next to me and HTG were They an asshole”?

Met as in saw across the room… like “wow that sure Looks like _____ but it might be an impersonator hired in costume”?

84

One that I forgot (I’m old, and it’s been a while):

In the 80s, when her “Good Sex” radio show was popular, I met Dr. Ruth Westheimer at a meet-and-greet after a lecture at my college campus. I wound up letting her use my lap (and a hardcover book that I had with me) as a writing desk while she signed some autographs. Very sweet lady, very funny.

85

Jean-Claude Van Damme - I was walking down the airplane aisle to my seat and this guy in a leather jacket, sunglasses, and baseball cap pulled down over his eyes was behind me. At our seats he mumbled if he could have the aisle seat to sit across from his wife and child. Sure. A couple of my friends in seats behind were trying to whisper to him and were pointing like “he’s-important”. I had no clue. Settled in our seats, and with a lull, I introduced myself. He said, “Hello, I’m Jean-Claude” with that unmistakable accent. I said “Van Damme?” and he nodded. I said I knew he must get pestered a lot with questions, said how I liked his movies, and would leave him in peace. Later in the flight he spoke to me and we struck up a conversation. He was flying to the SuperCollider to film a movie, and we talked about family. This was when he was fixing some things in his life and had gotten back together with his wife. When we exited the plane I got to introduce him to my wife who was picking me up. She didn’t know who he was.

86

As in Lame Claim to Fame?

87

Don Johnson interrupted a meeting I was in. Anson Williams used to play video games in my office.

88

Ray Lewis came into my gym once.
Met Larry Czonka at Katmai National Park in Alaska while he was filming his outdoor shows.
Met Forrest Sawyer at a gun show in Tampa.

I think that’s about it.

89

Oh, yeah, another one –

Albert R. “Pete” Gurney – Playwright, author of “Love Letters” and “Sylvia”, among others. He was one of my professors. We put on one of my plays in his class.

90

Well… if we’re going for Lame…
Donald Trump.

91

Yeah, I went to high school with Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup (and who is now also the voice of Chuck E. Cheese). Their bassist, Eric Chandler’s mom was one of my art professors in college, so he always seemed to be hanging around the art building… but back then, Eric was in a band called The Folkadots (with future BFS guitarist Chris Burney), and I left town before Bowling For Soup really got off the ground.

More recently, though, yet related to Bowling For Soup, I talked to Kelly Odgen of The Dollyrots, and finally got from her the “rabbit” explanation:

[spoiler]When Kelly was little, she had a pet rabbit that lived an unusually long and healthy life. One night, many years later, her aunt revealed to her that the original rabbit had died and been replaced by a look-alike multiple times over the course of Kelly’s childhood.

Rabbits feature a lot in The Dollyrots’ album covers. Just do a Google image search for it and you’ll see what I mean.[/spoiler]

92

I was in St Martin on vacation, at a community festival in Grande Case. Jimmy Buffet was living on nearby Anguilla, and was at the festival as well. He was seriously fucked up, I just a bit less so. We danced to a street band’s music for a while. I helped him back to his feet when he tripped and then we went our separate ways.

93

I think I’ve told this story here before.

When I first joined the boards, I was attempting to forge a career as a stand-up comedian. I wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t great at it, either. I was good enough to get to do a little bit of touring. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, and toured a bit in the Midwest.

I got booked to play at the University of Georgia, in Athens (home of bands like REM and the B52s). A friend of mine is a Yuuuugggggggeee fan of REM, so I asked her if she wanted to go with me. She jumped at the chance.

So we’re in A thens, just coming out of a store/cafe/whatever, it’s not important. We’re standing on the street, and she literally bumps into Michael Stipe. There’s this second where she’s trying to determine if it’s really him, or just her fangirl mind fucking with her.

She finally says that she’s a huge fan of the band, and asks him for an autograph. He says no.

She looks at him, kinda stung. He goes on to explain that he won’t because then he’d be there all day signing autographs (doesn’t matter that no one’s out and around).

Finally, out of frustration, I look at him and say something along the lines of “hey, cocksucker…this is your fucking hometown. Anybody else who wants your autograph already fucking has it.”

Then I turn around and walk off.

94

Franco Harris
David Newell (Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood)
Both of the above when I was a kid (also Purple Panda, but that’s a famous CHARACTER, not a famous person).

Debbie Reynolds
The Puppini Sisters (not hugely famous, but more people than just me have heard of them)
Jonathan Groff (he’s a local, family-wise)

95

At least one previous thread.

A couple I’ve met:

Barry Goldwater.

This was around 1988 or so. He paid a visit to a lab I was working in. He was in a wheelchair, and some guy was pushing him. The only people in the lab were me, my boss, Barry, and the dude that was pushing him.

Mike Gallagher.

Met him numerous times when I was 13 or 14. Strange man, strange story.

96

I went to high school with David Shuster and Meg Cabot. David’s family and mine went to the same synagogue. I knew David, but I was actually very good friends with his younger brother, who passed away when we were in college. Daniel is my son’s middle name after David’s brother. I read Torah at the aufruf for David’s wedding.

Meg and I were very good friends. We are still in touch, although it’s more of an email a few times a year kind of thing.

When I was 17, I wrote a letter to Lillian Gish, and she answered.

My brother was friends in college with Ethan Sandler, and so I met him a few times. My brother is still friends with him.

I have also met Gemma Jones, Joel Grey, Tip O’Neill, Art Speigelman (I actually got to talk to him for a while-- he was impressed that I knew his work from Raw, and had all the issues that featured it). I met the chessmaster Bruce Paldolfini once, and pretended I understood what he was talking about. I actually sort of know Marlee Matlin. I had a conversation with her at Gallaudet, and she didn’t realize I was hearing, then someone told her I was, and she asked me to interpret a phone call for her. She just wanted to check on a plane reservation.

When I lived in DC, I met various senators and congressmen, and such, but I never met the president, or the veep.

I talked to the King of Sweden on the phone once. I am not kidding. My roommate at Gallaudet was from a really important Swedish family, and when the king visited DC, her mother called to say “You should see him,” because apparently her family was actually on cordial terms with the royal family, and she had met him several times before. So she had me call (roommate was Deaf) his something-something-important number her mother had given her, and we actually got put through to him, at which point I interpreted a phone call, and she made some arrangement to see him. I wasn’t invited, but I didn’t expect to be.

I shook hands with Marcel Marceau once, and mentioned the name of an early student of his, whom I knew fairly well, and he stopped to ask me how Bernard Bragg was doing, so we chatted for all of about 30 seconds, but it was in a reception line that was supposed to be moving pretty quickly, and he wasn’t stopping to talk to many people.

I think that’s it. I once talked to my brother on the phone when he was with Patton Oswalt, who yelled “Hi Josh’s sister!” if that counts. My brother is a CGI tech who knows lots of people in Hollywood.

97

Oh, I also met “Weird Al” Yankovic after a show

98

Jay Leno, whom I remember being a huge, towering man, but my memory may be hazy.
Alex Trebek, whom I remember being a wee little man, but again, my memory may be hazy.
Downtown Julie Brown, very polite, gave me a huge smile, very soft-spoken.

99

Barrack Obama - before he was president, or even running for president
Al Lewis - played Grandpa on The Munsters

People of limited fame - you have to be heavily involved in the relevant sub-culture:
Evelyn “Mama Bird” Johnson (pilot)
Jean Redpath (folksinger)

100

I met Barack Obama in spring '08 at a labor rally in Chicago.

Met Joey Buttafuoco and Matt and Gunnar Nelson on New Years Eve 1997 at the Rainbow Room in L.A.

Interviewed Dennis Quaid when he was promoting his movie “The Rookie.” Interviewed Tommy Smothers around the same time when he and Dick were doing a show in metro Detroit; extremely nice guy.

Was in the boarding area for a flight on Southwest with Mickey Dolenz, casually chatted with him for a minute. (Took me a while to think of something, but I ended up opening with “You mean they make Monkees do cattle call boarding with the hoi polloi?” He had a real rockstar flair about him-- his clothes, his personality, just his overall presence. He didn’t seem to expect people to walk up to him and know who he was, but when they did, he was extremely charming and warm.)

That’s all I can think of, aside from some politicians…