I chatted with Clint Eastwood at his restaurant in Carmel a few years ago. He is the best looking 80 plus year old man I’ve ever seen.
Hmm…I wouldn’t say I’ve ever had a full-blown conversation with anyone famous, beyond a few pleasantries or asking for an autograph, but I’ve run into a few:
Dale Midkiff (the lead in Pet Semetary)–very nice guy, I was working at a local TV station where his show Time Trax was running and he came in, chatted, posed for photos and signed pics
Ed McMahon–also at work, we aired his show Star Search, took a photo and signed it, also very polite but business-like
Howard Jones (singer from the 80s and 90s)–nicely signed autographs
Anne Rice-- at a book signing
Kurt Vonnegut–I worked at Alumni Relations in college (graduated 1991) and he came to speak, I was working a reception beforehand and actually got his autograph. I was very intimidated to ask but somehow I did.
Went to see BD Wong in Madame Butterfly on Broadway (must have been 1989ish?) , and afterwards we went to the stage door; we were the only ones really waiting, and people were going in and out, and finally this guy pokes his head out and says, who are you waiting for? We said, we’d love to tell Mr. Wong how much we liked his performance, and he said, Hold on. A few seconds later, the door opens, and there is BD Wong, looking and sounding very relaxed and happy. He says Wow, thanks, hope you haven’t been out here too long, it’s freezing out here, you guys should get a door! (we didn’t know what “get a door” meant, except maybe “get inside and get warm”?) Anyway, he kindly signed our program, and we left to go get a door!
My H was working as University EMS during a talk by Spike Lee and got him to sign an autograph to me on an EMS symptom/stat card
We were dining at Husk in Charleston several years ago. Took a carriage tour earlier that day, and the driver mentioned that longtime soap star Susan Lucci was in town filming “Army Wives”. We noticed the hostess start to seat a couple near the front of the restaurant but then after a short conversation taking them instead to a table in the back. Even at a distance, I was pretty sure the woman was La Lucci, but we were very focused on our fabulous meal. After dessert, I excused myself to go to the ladies’ room, turned the corner, and literally bumped into the former “Erica Kane”. I was apologetic; she was very nice (and tiny - I felt like a giant at 5’6"!).
I met David Byrne at an art gallery/museum. He was showing some art there, and I was a member so attended the preview night. I saw him standing there by himself, and felt sort of bad for him (maybe people didn’t want to bother him?) so I just went over and started chatting about his art and other random things. He was very very nice.
I’ve had random walk-bys with a number of celebs, most recently Alec Baldwin.
Airplane “meetings”:
Paul Simon got a smile from me while I boarded a plane. He smiled back. No words.
Annie Lennox, I overcame my shyness to thank her for the hours of enjoyment she had given me while listening to her music. She smiled and told me I was welcome.
My wife returned from a business trip on the Concorde and told me that Mick Jagger had been on the flight. She told me that he left his boarding pass, marked “M. Jagger” on the plane. Really, honey? You couldn’t just pick it up?
@suzy100 Okay, I’m not much of a celebrity follower or fan but your post is the first one that has made me envious. Love David Byrne!
I love books and bookstores. We have an independent bookstore in our area which employs people who love and read a lot of books. I have always trusted their recommendations and pop in frequently.
Well, on one of my visits, I was told I should buy “this book”, because it was just so good. The author was just finishing her book signing, but if I hurried I could purchase a book and have her sign it.
Now, if you know me, I’m not one to buy a lot of hardcover books…let alone one I had never heard of…and to top it off, it was a young adult book…and my kids were 1 and 3.
I bought the book and went to the back of the store to get it autographed. Since the title had a boy’s name in it I figured I’d give it to my son at some point. The author was alone with some store employees. I asked if it was too late to get a book signed. She said of course not and talked with me for a couple of minutes…I think I wished her good luck on the book and made some small talk about our town. She was very nice and personalized the book with a ‘(my son’s name), I hope you enjoy the book’ inscription with the date and her name.
The book was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The author was of course, J. K. Rowling.
My only regret: I wish I had bought one for my daughter too! #MomGuilt
I’ve seen quite a few famous people in person close up – at restaurants (DiMaggio), passing them in the street (Reggie Jackson, Jack Klugman, Jackie Onassis), at baseball memorabilia conventions I used to go to sometimes 30 years ago (Mantle), at a book fair (Ali), in motorcades (JFK), at and/or after speeches/talks they gave when I was in college (Gary Hart, Jimmy Carter, Sam Ervin, William F. Buckley, and many others), at a Broadway theater (Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell) – but the only one I remember speaking to was Bobby Kennedy a couple of times, when he was campaigning for the U.S. Senate around where I lived back in 1964, when I was 9. Both times, I said “Hi.” Once, I shook his hand. The other time, I got his (completely illegible!) autograph. Scintillating indeed. (I did watch him help me and my mother gather up the contents of a bag of groceries from the sidewalk – she was so surprised to see him standing there on East 67th Street talking to a couple of cops that she dropped the bag just before we passed him.)
I also shook hands with Muhammad Ali when I saw him (I’ve never seen bigger hands), but I don’t think we spoke.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward lived in the apartment building I grew up in for a number of years in the 1960s, and I shared the elevator with one or both of them quite a few times, but I don’t remember talking to them. I was just a kid, and didn’t have a very clear idea at that age of who they were, except that they were famous actors.
Last, I was once introduced to Dan Quayle and exchanged brief pleasantries with him. Does he count?
A former administrative assistant of mine sort of took the cake for high-wattage random celebrity connections. When she was 10, at summer camp, her counselor was a (very attractive, I saw photos) 16-year-old Ruth Bader. Her son went to Yale Drama School, and occasionally brought his classmate/girlfriend home for visits – Meryl Streep. She also met Susan (soon-to-be-Sigourney) Weaver with him. (Various other well-known actors and directors as his career progressed, too, but those were the ones she bragged about.) And one of her grandsons was a member of a fairly successful rock band, but only for about two years.
My wife and I went to fancy schools and had some fancy jobs, including in government. The famous people we met in those capacities . . . that’s boring. The random encounters are more fun:
My wife and daughter were having dinner in a restaurant in New York one night, and the people at the next table were talking about the town where my wife spent her high school years. After a while, my wife joined the conversation – and one of the people turned out to be Karen Allen, who now lived there and had a knitting shop. They had a long talk about the area and about knitting and embroidery.
My kids and I once sat right behind Shirley Chisholm on a plane in the 1990s. I introduced her to them as the first African-American woman to run for President. She was lovely and gracious.
Once, my family and several nieces were hanging out at a very family-friendly beach on Cape Cod. One blanket over, there was a mother with two daughters, one about 10 and the other in her late teens. The older one was having a meltdown – just incredibly pouty and bitchy to her mother and her sister. We didn’t recognize her instantly, because without makeup she looked fairly normal, if tiny, but she was on the cover of the September Vogue in my wife’s beach bag. Julia Stiles. We didn’t bother them, though – not in the spirit of the place, and not in the middle of public family embarrassment. We all left at the same time, and wished each other a nice afternoon.
I was on a college tour with my son, and there was one dad who was incredibly obnoxious. He was obviously from New York City, very well dressed (on a Saturday afternoon), with a voice like a foghorn. He was asking all the questions the tour guides hate to answer – “How big a problem do you have with drinking here?” – while his daughter tried to squish herself into a little ball and disappear, Still, there was something completely familiar about him; I was sure I had met him before, and maybe worked on a deal with him. (He was also obviously a lawyer.) Finally, towards the end of the tour, I said, “Excuse me, but have we worked together? I’m ___________, from Philadelphia. I’m sure I recognize you, but I can’t place you.” He answered, “Well, you may have seen me on TV. I’m the junior Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer.”
Once annoyed Eliot Spitzer on a lower Manhattan street while carrying on as a 13 year old HS freshman with other HS classmates. He was carrying a drycleaned suit and had a scowl for us for acting like boisterous 12-14 year old HS freshmen.
Saw William Kunstler at a HS parent-teacher conference/event during my HS years. His D was in a prior graduating class.
Visited and shook the hand of former Presidential-candidate/Governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis at his NEU office on a suggestion of an older relative for additional insights/advice while doing field-research for a political science seminar class on Urban politics at the end of the '90s.
A group of HS classmates and I spotted then Boston Mayor Menino eating a sub at a Boston sandwich shop near the New England Medical center and waved to him. He waved back with a smile. This took place sometime in the early '00s not too long after undergrad.
Accidentally bumped into a uniformed 3-star General from the Chilean Army a few years ago while we were both going for the croissants. He was a guest/speaker for the Chilean Studies conference which happened to be adjacent to the Chinese studies conference I was attending at Harvard a few years back. A HS friend upon hearing about this remarked, 'Please cobrat, don’t get us involved in a war with Chile."
It didn’t occur to me to mention that I’ve met most, and actually know quite a few, of the transgender people who are relatively well-known, not that there are that many of them – Kate Bornstein, Jennifer Finney Boylan, etc., etc. Not Caitlyn Jenner, though. I have no interest!
@DonnaL : I “met” RFK and LBJ both at a campaign rally in 1964, when I was 8. I got to go with my mother and to sit on the dais, because a partner of my father’s got the tickets, but my father couldn’t get cleared to sit behind the President at that point because he had been accused of shooting a BB gun at a kid when he was in college. LBJ’s handshake was disturbingly limp! But Bobby was the real deal in terms of manly sex appeal. I don’t think I said much more than “Hello, nice to meet you” to either.
And re your story about the Newmans: One of my college roommates and I both took a semester off and worked in New York City. He sublet maid’s quarters on the top floor of the Dakota. He never saw John or Yoko, but he was in the same elevator bank as Lauren Bacall, then in her mid-50s (i.e., at death’s door as far as we were concerned). The Dakota elevators were ancient and incredibly slow – maybe a minute per floor. The first time he took the elevator and she got on, he decided she was the sexiest woman he had ever met. He sometimes rode up and down for hours hoping she would get on. If she did, he would try to chat her up – he was anything but shy – but I don’t think he ever confessed how hot he was for her.
i agree @ JHS that the chance encounters are the most fun. My most interesting one ( I’m the OP) though was the not- chance encounter with Obama where he was just some guy running in a primary and was pretty much doomed to failure ( until the leading candidate was embroiled in a scandal). I’ve gone to many of these in home candidate fundraisers over the years but never had the kind of reaction I had to him. He was the most magnetic person I’ve ever encountered. I can’t even explain why exactly. There was just something about him. I went home and told my husband that this guy was really amazing and it was too bad he wouldn’t go far.
My only contribution to this thread is having seen Danny Devito and Rhea Perlman at an ice cream shop in Portland probably in the mid 80’s.
When I worked in the hospitality business I had the opportunity to meet some famous people. Some people are better behaved in a restaurant than others, if you know what I mean.
Sports stars or coaches never did a thing for me. Actors and musicians often had a protective force field up aka Don’t Talk to Me.
I was VERY excited to cross paths with the cast of This Old House. Norm! Tommy!
When I was 16, Herman’s Hermits were staying at the same hotel in Miami Beach (The Roney Plaza). They were in town to do the Jackie Gleason show. They were very gracious about posing for pictures with me.
I also once got Robert Vaughan’s autograph as he was coming out of the 21 Club in NYC.
This thread is prompting memories of more encounters.
My parents met Obama too when he was running for Senator. They said he was nice except that he reeked of cigarette smoke. Must have been before he kicked that habit.
At the airport, I’ve seen many, many famous people. LAX is a good place for famous people watching. Crocodile Dundee, Diane Keaten.
I passed Sylvestor Stallone on the street. He’s very short.
I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger before he became Governor on a trip to Catalina.
I saw Jack Palance at the doctor’s office (not looking good).
I ran into Julie Andrews at my dentist’s office. Funny, because my mouth was all numbed up from my appointment and I tried to say “Oh, Julie Andrews! I love your singing” and you can imagine what it came out like, sounded like a drunk.
I sat next to Neil Simon once on a plane. He was writing and everytime I even glanced his way, he’d cover his page like a school kid afraid that I was trying to copy his paper. Like I cared. He never even said the usual pleasantries.
At a restaurant, at the next table were Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner discussing their lastest Star Trek movie.
I saw Dolly Parton at a movie premiere. She is absolutely tiny.
I saw the late Carrie Fisher at Saks with a little dog in her purse.
I saw Kevin Costner before he was a big star. The person I was with said 'That’s Kevin Costner. He’s going to be a big star". I didn’t see it because he wasn’t that striking looking in person.
I was walking with my babies when Kyle Chandler who lived in my area (before he was well known) saw us and said “isn’t that a pretty picture”. I’ve always liked him since!
I didn’t count this because it was through work and I can’t tell who it was because of attorney client privilege but many years ago we were asked to represent a very famous pop singer in a paternity case filed in the Midwestern city where I work. We almost never work with anyone famous but he wanted to keep the story out of the Hollywood press and thought it was better to use Midwest counsel and his wife was childhood friends with one of the partners at my firm. We weren’t known for paternity law so they thought it was a good low key choice. It was a surreal experience because:
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it was the only paternity case I’ve ever heard of where the accused had never met the accuser ( she was clinically insane and was in fact not even pregnant but believed she was)
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when I would call his agents office I felt like royalty because I’d say “hi attorney maya calling for Agent Mr Cool” and the assistant would be like “oh my gosh please just hold for a second we are going to get him right away” And then Id hear her frantically tell an even lowlier assistant to “run and get Agent Cool right away. Attorney Maya is calling!!!” Lol. The pop star was obviously an important client and they were under some sort of order to speak to me anytime day or night. I am like the least important person work wise you’ve ever met. I was just the only attorney at my firm who’d done any paternity law. I found that part hilarious.
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I was pregnant at the time with my first kid and the pop star would sometimes call me from home and he’d occasionally have to interrupt our conversation to deal with his own kids. One time it got a little loud and he said to his kids " Hey that’s supposed to be a fun game and if you guys aren’t having fun ( they were fighting) I’m gonna have to take it away." Can’t tell you how many times I ended up using that line with my own kids.
We got the case thrown out pretty easily when, after she claimed to have given birth the hospital said it had no record of her. I felt bad for my guy. Lots of expense. And his agent repeatedly told me " This is my one rock star client who I’m pretty sure has never been unfaithful!"
I forgot one restaurant encounter: I sat once at a table adjoining Jacqueline Bisset and Alexander Gudonov back when they were an item in the 1980s. Their table had a very short tablecloth and I couldn’t help noticing that they were playing very serious, intense footsie (and other things) under their table, throughout their meal. I did try very hard not to look. They were oblivious to others’ eyes. I must say that they looked as good in person as they did on the screen.
I sat in front of Mayor Koch at a weekday afternoon showing of the movie “Dogs of War,” in a mostly empty theater. I guess he was taking the afternoon off. He hated the movie.
And in the early 1980s. I shared a first-class section (my firm paid for first class flights in those days!), on a flight from Las Vegas to NYC, with the Village People. They weren’t in costume, but it was rather obvious who they were.
I used to book speakers at the school I went to, and met some famous and semi famous people through that: Isaac Asimov (the ego above all others), Hunter S Thompson (jerk), Gene Roddenberry (a really nice guy, full of what the Irish call Blarney, very charming…and yeah, have read about his many flaws, but he was a delight to work with), Douglas Adams (he and his then girlfriend had me in stitches the whole time, very,very funny and nice people, and if you think reading Hitchhiker’s was great, hearing him read it live was out there), Abby Hoffman (full of himself), McGeorge Bundy (was still trying to defend the Vietnam policy he was one of the chief architects for), and my favorite duo of all, G. Gordon Liddy and Timothy Leary (Leary kind of surprised me, I expected this burned out wreck, still was sharp as hell, and I actually liked Liddy despite my own beliefs being about 10,000 degrees from his).
Probably the most amazing person I ever met was Kareem Abdul Jabaar, at a friend’s house at a party, probably one of the most amazing minds I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, only sorry we were only able to talk a short time, he is someone I could spend some very interesting dinner’s talking to and just listening to him talk about history.
The one person I think I would love to meet (who is now gone?). Studs Terkel, I think having dinner and drinks with him I could die a happy person, thankfully I have his books and his appearences on things like Charlie Rose to experience him.