Jesse Jackson. He and three or four members of his entourage with about a dozen pieces of luggage were waiting for their limo in the passenger pick-up area at PHX while DesertRoomie and I were waiting for my brother to show up from the cell-phone lot.
I have also hobnobbed and shared meals with various Libertarian presidential candidates and science fiction writers, but “famous” may be applied a bit differently with either of those groups.
I was working at CVS in my hometown, and Lewis Black was a regular morning customer, getting his newspaper and the like.
My co-worker, a 60 year old Catholic from Kansas, little sheltered, had no idea who he was and commented on the headline of his paper (trump v. Clinton) and brother, it was ON. Full-tilt, inimitable, Lewis Black finger-jabbing rant. Not ten feet from where I stood, and the best part? It was interactable!
TBH, I was a little disappointed. Maybe he hadn’t had his coffee yet, but I was struck by two things. First, his stage persona is a little mellower than the reality. Second, when the lights go down, the makeup comes off and he’s off the clock, he’s just a pissed off old New York Jew. Hell, my father is one of those, in fact, that describes half my family.
Really nice guy, though. A kid came in and recognised him, and without a word, he nodded, sighed, and took a selfie.
Actually, he’s a pissed off old suburban DC Jew. He grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and went to college at Maryland and UNC. He ended up in New York because he aspired to be a playwright.
I worked a couple of his shows in the area and, within 30 seconds of meeting me, he somehow knew I went to Blair (he went to Springbrook, my high school’s primary rival, and it wasn’t because he recognized me, we attended high school 30 years apart). And yes, despite his whacked-out on-stage character that seems like he’s on the verge of stroking out any second, he is a very nice man.
I manned the switchboard for the military side of the Norwegian airport Clinton landed at when he visited. All the blinds were down and we weren’t supposed to look out, but the front of the plane and the steps were visible from a glass emergency exit door, so we viewed him exiting the plane from there. Didn’t get shot by the snipers on the roofs.
And I have a picture of me and Adam Savage after an event.
Depending on how you score it a president might be more famous than Buzz Aldrin. So the time I met Cory Booker has the potential to move into my number one spot.
Funny I didn’t think of this earlier because he’s just some kid I know. I also know a very famous athlete who I won’t name because I don’t want to pinpoint my location more. Even though he’s famous and a millionaire he still calls me Mr Loach. I don’t see him very often now but I was talking to his father in the gym yesterday.
Aww, you don’t have to be either a New Yorker, or Jewish to be a new York Jew! 
Funny thing is, I grew up and currently live in Chapel Hill (UNC), but lived in Silver Spring, MD until I was seven! If I see him down at the pub (we go to the same one), I’ll have something to talk to him about!
Loach:
Oh, good reminder - I’d met Booker and shook his hand after a Bon Jovi concert during the opening week of the Prudential Arena while he was mayor of Newark. If he makes it to higher office, he probably eclipses the baseball players I mentioned.
In high school, I attended some thing (due to being an editor of the high school newspaper) where astronaut Jim Lovell gave a speech.
I was introduced to singer Debbie Gibson on the beach (a friend knew her. I knew of her name, but wouldn’t have recognized her. The guy she was with tore a picture of her out of some magazine, had her sign it, and she gave it to me. Thanks, I guess?)
Same beach, I rented a jetski to baseball player Gary Sheffield.
I attended a charity auction where football players from the Miami Dolphins had gathered. It was at a hotel my dad managed, so I got to be “security” even though I was just 16. I took a picture with Dan Marino (and later chatted with his dad) and talked briefly with some other retired players (most notably, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper).
I “think” I was in an elevator with Bill Cosby (this used to be a lot sweeter story). Same hotel - my dad informed me that Cosby’s wife’s family was having a reunion on the top floor. I saw lots of people with reunion t-shirts over the next few days, and eventually found myself alone in the elevator with a guy who was wearing one such shirt, along with a hat pulled low and what looked like a fake beard. He was holding a stogie and had the biggest diamond ring I had ever seen on his finger. So, no proof, but possibly him.
Same hotel used to have boxer Michael Nunn stay there when he was training in south Florida.
On the even of Super Bowl XXIX (in Miami - the 49ers killed the Chargers) professional athletes were teeming around south Florida. One day in the week before the game, Al Michaels walked by me in the mall (I followed him into a book store and asked him for the time to make sure it was really him), QB Jim Kelly was signing autographs in front of one store and LB Lawrence Taylor was signing in front of another. When I left, I heard about another signing at a local sporting goods store, so I made a detour to meet QBs Boomer Esiason and Warren Moon.
In college, I attended some political rallies…I attended a speech given by Ralph Nader (but was in the back of a very crowded room) and, years later, was just a few feet from a stage where Jesse Jackson spoke. I also saw a speech given by Al Sharpton. And I was in the crowd behind VP candidate John Edwards when he showed up.
Once, as a kid, I received an award from the actor who played Mr. Belvedere.
At my current job, I’ve met golfer David Duval, football coach Mike Shanahan, and NBA basketball player Ty Lawson.
That also reminds me - on my 13th birthday, I met NBA player (and future coach) Scott Skiles at a meet and greet at a grocery store in Orlando.
So, mainly athletes, a few politicos, and some randoms.
John F. Kennedy. I was just shy of 4 when he did a campaign stop in Michigan. It was one of those things they used to do where they’d put a podium right by his plane and people would crowd in behind a short fence at the airport (security so much different then). Anyway, my family was at the fence and my dad held me up so I could see him. As I recall, I was struck by his tanned face and by the reddish tone to his hair. Later, he did the fence walk handshake thing and my dad held me up and JFK kind of patted my head.
Hey, I had about the same story! My dad was wearing his WW2 uniform with all the medals and ribbons and stuff and got right up to the second row, with me on his shoulders, and JFK leaned over and shook our hands. I think it was 1960, when he was running but not yet Elected. In LAX I think, but maybe another local airport.
Warren Buffet likes some of the same local restaurant as I do, and we sit near him periodically. My wife and I sat next to Ben Nelson and his wife at a movie once.
For a while, I was a friend of ex-Jet Bruce Harper, and I baby-sat Rev. Al Sharton’s daughters.
FTW, Ron Jeremy.
I met him also, he is pretty cool.
Jimmy Dean, of the music and sausage fame. He had a place near my grandma’s on Martha’s Vineyard. In the evenings, he would join us for our walks to shore. He would always buy us candy or ice cream from the gas station in Menemsha.
We had no idea he was famous or rich. But we recognized the candy pattern and asked when we’d get our treat. He’d answer:
“Close your eyes, what do you see?”
“Nothing”
“Well, that’s what you’re gonna get”.
To this day, I use that with my kids.