Too late to edit, Bill Pearl, I’ve met and have the autograph of Bill Pearl
And after looking at my previous post, I swear I fixed all those typos…!@#$%&^*(])><_+/×=÷?-,;’ POS Touch screen phone
From a distance: Pope John Paul II during his 1979 Midwestern tour.
Close-up: Dr. James Van Allen, for whom the Van Allen radiation belts are named and also a science building at the University of Iowa. Incoming freshmen still think they made up the “Van Halen Building” joke.
I saw a speech by Bill Clinton and when I was a teen, Prince Charles and Lady Diana visited the JC Penney at the mall in Springfield, Va (I’m not kidding. No, I don’t know why).
I saw Barack Obama during his '08 presidential run, at a rally at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
While working at Blockbuster, I met several members of the Indiana Pacers basketball organization. I remember being struck by how tall Jonathan Bender was, and by how shy coach Isiah Thomas was. I went to a sporting goods store once and got a Pacers hat autographed by Al Harrington.
I also saw Larry Bird in a bar on the same block as the Blockbuster.
I’ve been to several Pacers games and have seen many players from afar, of course. I even went to a Chicago Bulls game in which Michael Jordan played.
And I’ve gone to some musical concerts and seen the members of Chicago; Styx; and Earth, Wind, and Fire.
Once a few months after Bill Clinton had left office, the Clintons were having brunch about 20 feet from me at a DC restaurant. I didn’t even notice them until I saw all these big guys in suits with pigtail earpieces, and a bunch of black SUVs, so we started looking around to see who the big shot was.
I passed Linda Evans going the other direction on the sidewalk on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. That was 1987 when everybody knew her but today not so much.
A couple of year ago I had beers with Gregg Bissonette, but he is not famous to the average person.
My girlfriend and I ran into Mr. T at a bar in Dayton Ohio, he was just sitting there having a drink. I bought him a beer, my girlfriend rubbed his neck and pressed her womanly abundance against the back of his head while telling him how manly he was. He autographed a dollar for her and drew a Mohawk and beard on George’s head and also added a chain with a T around his neck. I just got an empty glass out of the deal 
From a previous thread:
Through conventions, I’ve met and talked with several celebrities, including:
Felicia Day
Wil Wheaton
Katee Sackhoff
Billie Piper
Bruce Campbell
John de Lancie
I rode an elevator with Bobby McFerrin in Vegas.
Said hi to Christina Applegate in a food serving line as an extra.
And a few people from the Science Channel.
I’ve also met and talked with all members of the band ‘Nevermore’, but I doubt anyone knows who there are. LOL
Seen? All kinds of people. The ones I’ve spoken to for more than just a “hi” include:
Isaac Asimov – many interactions when we both lived in the Boston area.
Jim Backus – played touch football with him
Many of the Nobel Laureates in Economics, Paul Samuelson, Bob Merton, Myron Scholes, Bob Lucas, Gene Fama, Bob Shiller are the ones I’ve known the best.
Tim Geithner
John Glenn
Penn & Teller – well OK Teller and I didn’t actually have a conversation.
I was once one of about 2000 people at a Joe Biden speech while he was VP.
As far as people I’ve actually had at least brief conversations with: who’s more famous between Jello Biafra and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi? Sadly, they were not at the same party.
As for famous people I’ve actually known, I was on pretty good terms with David Chapelle and Patton Oswald when they were starting out in the DC/Baltimore club scene.
This is the list I created for a similar thread in 2008 and have updated many times since, although I did better than merely seeing them: I actually met and talked with all of these people.
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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
James Doohan
Others:
Walter Cronkite. I gave him an impromptu 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
Kurt Vonnegut
Since leaving the museum in 1996, 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 director of JREF. Didn’t get it.)
Christopher Hitchens (author)
Ralph Nader
Kristen Chenoweth (actress/singer)
Bobby Rahal (IndyCar driver)
Dava Sobel (Author of Galileo’s Daughter and Longitude. I was more excited about meeting her than any famous actor I’ve met or can imagine meeting. Those books rock! When she found out how disappointed I was that I hadn’t brought one of her books to sign, she gave me a copy of the latest paperback edition of Longitude and signed it for me! Complete with the longitude and latitude of her home on Long Island. Very nice lady. )
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 (philosopher)
Murray Gell-Mann (physicist)
Milton Glaser (graphic artist)
Thor Heyerdahl
Garrison Keillor
Mark Okrand (inventor of Klingon language)
Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer)
Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb)
In 2006, I spent an evening in Las Vegas having drinks with skeptic Michael Shermer and Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and Kari Byron. The next day I spoke briefly with Jamie Heineman.
In keeping with the spirit of the OP, I’ve been within 20 feet of, but not talked to, Tom Cruise, at a film premiere.
Major League Baseball players/coaches with whom I have at least shaken hands and exchanged meaningful words include Hank Aaron, Phil Neikro, Denny Doyle, Blake Doyle, and Clete Boyer.
Got Ted Williams’ autograph when he came to the refreshment counter during intermission at the Cinerama in Boston, maybe 1957.
Passed within one foot of Jackie O’s face while I was working at Saks Fifth Ave in 1982 while she was waiting for her personal shopper to get her a jacket for John-John’s 21st birthday. I just looked at her and she just looked at me. I was going on my lunch break and didn’t feel like shooting the breeze. She seemed real nice. Exuded a kind of warmth I suppose.
Saw Steve Martin from across the street when he was yelling at somebody, NYC, 1983 or so.
Sat on a plane going from San Juan PR to NY with a half dozen members of Sha Na Na seated behind me. They weren’t too noisy. 1975-6 or so.
I forced Jock McKernan–former governor of Maine and husband of Olympia Snowe–to ground out twice in a little league game in maybe 1959. He wasn’t famous, or well-known, yet of course.
Brief conversations and handshakes with Noel “Lois Lane” Neill; George “Sulu” Takei.
Pretty awesome!
I have spent time with Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella of MSFT fame.
Shared an elevator with supermodel Linda Evangelistica and Kayle MacLachlin in Reno during the filming of Showgirls.
Played pinball with Robin Williams
Any number of blues artists and rock stars.
A couple of billionaires in addition to Billg, SteveB and Bezos.
I’m sure there are more but I’m blanking at the moment.
I think this is the one within the thread I am most jealous of.
Not much from me (shook hands with a few, short conversations with a few, others merely within 20 feet or so of):
(and I just ended 2 consecutive sentences with a preposition)
Mitch Albom
Ernie Harwell
LL Cool J
Steve Yzerman
Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies)
Mike Tyson
Mickey Lolich
Justin Timberlake
mmm
Well fine, then I won’t talk about my conversation with Warren Spahn either.
I’ve got autographs from Keith Hernandez and James Doohan.
Once on a flight to or from DC (I forget which) I sat across the aisle from my congressman. (Dennis Moore, who has long since retired.)
On a trip to NY many years ago we were walking down the street that runs alongside the Ed Sullivan Theater (when Letterman was still doing his show there) and we saw Matthew Broderick come out the side door and hop into a limo.
Oh, and once in Seattle we were sitting in a Starbuck’s when we saw Arlo Guthrie walk by outside.
I had dinner with the Oak Ridge Boys when I was a teenager…
I worked in an amusement park at the time and my supervisor picked me and another to “help” (read “do all the work”) with backstage catering. We had to feed the road crew, the band as well as the performers all of their meals. We started cooking at 4am, cleaned up and started prepping for the next meal. We did this as well as kept coolers/fridges stocked with drinks and a small buffet table stocked with various fruit and snacks; it was basically non stop working on something all day long. We could only eat after everyone else finished going through the line. By the time supper was served, extra people had shown up and we had to take the table we ate on from the kitchen and put it out in the dining area for extra guests, there was room for us to sit out there, but we were the “hired help” and were told by our bosses to be as invisible as possible, so we grabbed food and hid in the kitchen.
While we were standing there eating, one of the Oak Ridge Boys stuck his head in the kitchen to compliment us on our food. He saw us standing there trying to eat and insisted for us to come out and sit with them. We politely declined, but he kept insisting and threatened to have all of the “guys” come in to stand and eat with us in the kitchen if we didn’t sit with them. We relented and sat with them. They were really kind, generous people. When our boss stopped by and saw us sitting there, he had a fit, but the guys defended us and told him that they insisted and got him to drop it.
The next day we were called into the office. We were pretty sure we were fired. Instead we were each handed a box of various souvenirs, autographed pictures and a letter commending our efforts in keeping them all fed.
This whole thing caused us to be tagged with this job for every concert. I met other performers, but they were far and above kinder than any of the others.
Another time I gave a lost guy directions at a gas station. For the life of me, I can’t remember his name, but everyone else at the station said he was some hall of fame baseball player.