Meeting Famous People

[Nullifidian]

This was the subject of a few threads at IIDB, and I figured what use is a forum meme if it's not being spread?

I met Francis Crick, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and others at a 2003 symposium at UCSD celebrating the golden anniversary of the discovery of DNA.

I once watched a performance of David Ives' All in the Timing in the lobby of the San Diego Repertory Theatre, and noticed a man with long gray hair who looked rather familiar. Then it hit me: Holy shit, I'm sitting behind Luis Valdez! I met him during the intermission and had an opportunity to tell him how much I liked his plays.

I also met Wallace Shawn (Vizzini in The Princess Bride, Grand Nagus Zek, etc.) at a performance he gave of his one-man play, The Fever in 1999 (it's available on the web as an audio file (http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/wallace-shawn/)). It's an awesome play. Go listen. Now. :whup:

I met Athol Fugard when he was acting in a play he'd written at the La Jolla Playhouse and he was outside after the performance getting a smoke while I was waiting for my ride.

I've met Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (the Mythbusters) at a party organized at the Birch Aquarium in San Diego so Discovery could promote its Shark Week series.

I met Sir David Attenborough also at the Birch.

I studied under Priscilla Allen whose claim to fame is being the Fat Lady from Total Recall.

I've met Samuel Ramey when I went to Wichita to hear him perform as Scarpia, and Thomas Hampson when he was in Overland Park, KS. Some of my friends have a twisted sense of humor, and they gave me a copy of NTA: No Tenors Allowed because I'm a tenor. It's duets of Thomas Hampson (baritone) and Samuel Ramey (bass) and now I have both their autographs on it. :)

I sang in the San Diego Opera chorus when a few notable singers came through, like Feruccio Furlanetto, but I was more focused on doing my job than meeting them. Such encounters can be embarrassing in the middle of rehearsals, for example.

I met Christian Parenti at the Mid-Atlantic Radical Bookfair, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz at the San Francisco Radical Bookfair and at Solidarity! in Lawrence, KS, Ashanti Alston at Solidarity!, and Ward Churchill at Solidarity! and the Mid-Atlantic Radical Bookfair.

But my biggest star moment was meeting Thelma White, the woman who played the original Mae in Reefer Madness when she attended a performance of the world premiere of Reefer Madness: The Musical. Here is a woman who acted in a film destined for a permanent place in the annals of stoner entertainment. :D

[livius drusus]

Wow, nice assortment of names for dropping. I met the doctor from the Love Boat on a plane to LA once. He was a meanie. :sadcheer:

[Nullifidian]

Wow, nice assortment of names for dropping. I met the doctor from the Love Boat on a plane to LA once. He was a meanie. :sadcheer:

You should have used your :adminpwr:

I really have cheated a bit, because I don't know how many of those would be famous outside certain contexts. Like outside the context of rabid fans of Total Recall or The Princess Bride or outside the context of contemporary American left politics. Besides, by being in Lawrence, KS I was uniquely in a position to meet a surprising number of left-wing authors and speakers thanks to Lawrence's thriving anarchist community (yes, in Kansas).

Plus, aside from the chance meetings of Athol Fugard and Luis Valdez, all the rest of them were cases in which meeting people was planned or should at least be expected.

Oh, and one of my high school teachers nearly ran down Jonas Salk when Salk was crossing against a red light. That's the best celebrity meeting I've ever heard. The high school itself was the inspiration for the book, and hence the movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. From what I could tell, it didn't really change all that much in the intervening years. :D

[Watser?]

I don't know any of the people mentioned (though the name Ward Churchill rings a bell somewhere).

However I have met some people who are world-famous in the Netherlands :D

And Michael Franti of Spearhead (when he was still with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy). And I played pinball with Pavement (except the drummer, he was dead drunk as usual).

And I met some people who are world-famous in Palestine and/or Israel.

Oh yeah and a really weird thing. I was in Gaza after an Israeli bombing and got to interview a guy from Hamas. I had never heard of him at the time and he was relatively unknown. But then a couple of years later he became prime-minister of the PA.

[viscousmemories]

I started a similar thread (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=39983#post39983) a couple years ago with a tale about my brush with royalty.

[Nullifidian]

I don't know any of the people mentioned (though the name Ward Churchill rings a bell somewhere).

Ward Churchill is the recently-fired professor of indigenous studies at UC Boulder who was the center of the right-wing firestorm for his "little Eichmanns" article, "Some People Push Back". That's probably where you've heard of him.

Apparently nobody on the right-wing reads Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem.

And you should have given some names of those people you met in the Netherlands and Palestine. I might have at least heard of some of the people, especially the latter group.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

i've met many famous people from many categories...too many to mention.

[D. Scarlatti]

Apparently nobody on the right-wing reads Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem.

I haven't either, but I never found the reference particularly offensive or even remarkable. I understood it, though.

Just because somebody seeks to clarify bin Laden's grievances doesn't mean they sympathize with his methods.

[Brimshack]

Eh...

I don't have much to brag about here, but let's see, I studied under Marshal Sahlins for a semester, pretty famous in Anthro circles. I attended about 3 presentations by Ward Churchil, never spoke to him though except to ask a question at one of them. (Yes, I thought he was an ass.) Had an email exchange with Gary Gygax recently (got some recipes). Met the guy who wrote Milagro Beanfield War at a conference once (it's killing me that I can't remember his name) and had him autograph a couple books for me. Nice guy, gave a fantastic presentation.

Other than that, the only truley famous person who has ever spoken to me was Lemme from Motorhead. He looked at me and said; "Covered in fucking blood, eh?" and walked on by.

Apparently, My grandpa once treated Ronald Reagan for a football concussion. Do relatives count?

...yes, I know I've told the Lemme story before.

[Watser?]

Well ok, I met Joris Luijendijk who has written a few books and is now a tv-presenter. Met him at a party at the Dutch consul's place in East Jerusalem when he was a correspondent there, along with another correspondent Conny Mus. Also Jeff Halper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Halper) of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Mustafa Barghouti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Barghouti) and Huwaida Arraf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huwaida_Arraf) of the ISM.

Oh and the PM is of course Ismail Haniyeh.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

i guess if i had to pick my favourite famous person out of the hundreds i have met at work or been at parties with, is Roger Moore. he was just too cool. he was in doing a hit for unicef. i mean...he was the James Bond of my youth!!

very cool! :D


my favourite not-so-famous person...

i remember meeting a student leader from the tiananmen square massacre. i forget her name, but she was so tiny and i admired her so much for the huge amount of courage she had. i took her into the booth and was showing her around when she took out some pictures, asking if we could show them during the interview. one, was a picture of a man with his brains spilling out the top of his head. it was really ghastly.

i told her it was too graphic for television and i felt ashamed for saying that...

i wish i could remember her name...it was quite a while ago...

michael :)

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

oh...

meeting Mike Myers at work was really funny. i was in on my day off, picking something up, when i took the elevator with him and his entourage. i didn't recognize him at first, but he looked really familiar. we smiled a hello and went our separate ways. on my way out, i decided to stop by the studio and say hello, and there he was again. he looked at me and we said hello. so, as i am leaving the studio, i run into him in the hall and he nudges his assistant and says- "hey! there's that guy again! i think he's following me!" we both laughed and i promised him that i was far too lazy to ever be a stalker.

my wife has met even more famous people. she works as a talent wrangler at awards shows.

oh...and it's always funny to see how short action heroes really are :)


michael :)

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

the biggest commotion i ever saw for any famous person at my work (most of us are pretty jaded :)), was for James Taylor. i was pretty impressed by how he got the girls in the office running to meet him, but unimpressed with how that looked :)

oh...and getting to talk to bryon smith when he climbed mt everest!! that was pretty cool- to talk to somebody actually on mt everest :D

every big-name politician i ever met, from any party, reminded me of a gangster and seemed cold, even if they were of the smiling variety...

michael :)

[Uthgar the Brazen]

Lessee...

Ronald Reagan, George Takei, Lewis Black, Jacob Druckman and Gil Gerard.

Yeah, mine's the life of Riley...

[Julie]

I have far to many to list.

I do live in hollywood north though and that has a lot to do with it. Plus For a while there I knew the whos who of Hockey...so if we count sports stars as famouse then the list is super long.

My favorite is something and someone very few people can match...I not only met the Queen of ENgland and her husband, but I got hugs from both of them, of cource I was all of 8 years old at the time....

[wildernesse]

Professor Steve Steve lives at my house.

I also spent nearly an entire day with Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court.

[Ymir's blood]

I met Andy Warhol at a really chic party.

None actually.

[curses]

I've met Robert Smith and Eddie Izzard. Robert Smith was shorter than I expected.. Eddie Izzard was exhausted and so were we, so it wasn't the stellar conversation I'd hoped for.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Hmmm, mostly musical types from back in the playing-in-a-band/clubbing days. Henry Rollins (Black Flag/Rollins Band), Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers), Tom Warrior (Celtic Frost), Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix Experience). Actually got to play onstage with Redding (just during the soundcheck, but still, I played on the same stage with a guy who played for years with Hendrix!). I could have met Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys/LARD) after a lecture he gave at URI, but it was 1:30 AM by the time he finished and my people I was with just wanted to go home and sleep at that point.

For all you old time WWF fans, I also met Captain Lou Albano. He came into the supermarket I was working at about 25 years ago, and asked me if I could please tell him where the tuna fish was.

"Aisle one!" said I.

[beyelzu]

i met the bloodhound gang. after a show at the roxy they hung out at back for over an hour just bullshitting with the fans. they signed anything and everything.

lupus even had a roady go get some little bottle of jaeger after we drank the pint bottle that i brought with me.

[beyelzu]

Professor Steve Steve lives at my house.

I also spent nearly an entire day with Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court.

that is pretty fucking cool.

[Chris Porter]

Professor Steve Steve lives at my house. Really? Wow! I've seen him on the internet!*

I also spent nearly an entire day with Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court.



*that seems to have come off sarcastic, but twasn't meant to be so. It's just that I recognize so few of the "famous people" folks here are posting about, and I know Professor Steve Steve.

I've probably met quite a few in my time, but can only recall maybe two or three: Jim Nabors, John Porter (congress critter), and, um, Gene Siskal, many many years ago. None which people are likely to recall, if they are younger than me.

By internet and email, I know David Friedman, (anarchist), did some work for him once.

Also took a genetics class from Rebecca Cann (came up with "Mitochondrial Eve") at UH.

[The Lone Ranger]

Most of the "famous" people I've met are biologists who are famous in the scientific world but probably not in the general world.

I've met Stephen Jay Gould, Jared Diamond, John Terborgh (http://fds.duke.edu/db/Nicholas/faculty/manu), and Stephen Vogel (http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/Biology/svogel), each of whom is pretty well-known. I attended a conference with Lynn Margulis, but I never got a chance to speak with her. Ken Kardong (http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Kenneth%20V.%20Kardong&page=1) is a good friend and a super guy.

I met Harvey Lillywhite (http://www.zoo.ufl.edu/faculty/lillywhite.html)at a conference where I was giving a presentation. He said he really liked my work and was a really nice person.

I know quite a few biologists who are well-known in the field, but not likely to be known to the general public.

Ted Benfey (http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/our-berlin) (probably not someone you'd know of unless you're a chemist) was one of my teachers.


I've met Mark Mathabane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Mathabane). I had lunch with Captain Paul Watson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Paul_Watson) a few years ago, and discussed the intelligence of whales with him.

I've met and spoken with Denise Crosby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Crosby) (she was having a bad day), Robin Curtis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Curtis) (she was just as sweet as can be), and all the members of the band "Silly Wizard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Wizard)." I've met (but didn't speak to) David Ogden Stiers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogden_Stiers). (He was filming a scene from a movie in which he was playing Benjamin Franklin. I wound up chatting with the director -- whose name, alas, I don't recall -- and I teased him, pointing out that some of the trees clearly visible in the shot were non-native and would not have been present in North America in the year 1776. He told me that he seriously doubted anyone would notice.)

I went to school with Edie Caggiano (http://www.ediecaggiano.com/photos.html). She changed her name when she went to Hollywood, and so I knew her by a different name.


In addition, I've met some people who are legendary in the martial arts community, but would probably not be recognized by anyone outside that community. That includes Shihan John Taylor (http://kenshusei.com.au/trainer%20bios/JohnTaylorBio.asp) (the 6-hour workout sessions he subjected us to were just plain brutal) and I've been privileged to train with Omoto Sensei (http://www.furyu.com/archives/issue8/Omoto.html), who was one of the first people to bring kendo to the United States. He honored me by telling me that he thought I had very good form and was a fast learner. He never let me hit him, however, though I tried very hard to do so, and he was 50 years older than me.

Cheers,

Michael

[livius drusus]

I've met (but didn't speak to) David Ogden Stiers.
That's probably for the best. If I were talking to David Ogden Stiers, I would find it impossible to refrain from asking him to say "for who could ever learn to love... a beast" over and over again.

[curses]

I've met (but didn't speak to) David Ogden Stiers.
That's probably for the best. If I were talking to David Ogden Stiers, I would find it impossible to refrain from asking him to say "for who could ever learn to love... a beast" over and over again.
:giggle:
I'd probably make him quote lines from MASH.

[The Lone Ranger]

Oh! I thought of another one. Sheridan Simon (http://www.fantasist.net/scroll/?p=657) was one of my teachers. He was just the nicest guy you'd ever hope to meet, and an absolutely brilliant physicist and teacher. He was also a science-fiction author, but he wrote under a pseudonym. One of the favorite pasttimes of us science geeks under his instruction was to try to wheedle the secret of his pen name out of him, but he refused to ever say.

I know his widow, Rose, and she swears to me that he never told even her. "I still get royalty checks," she once told me, "but part of the contract was that the book titles and author's name would never be revealed, not even to me."


I met Larry Niven at a book signing once. (He wasn't Sheridan.)

Cheers,

Michael

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

given what passes for famous in this thread, i give all of you the right to say you know me :)

[The Lone Ranger]

"Famous" is a relative term.

For example, the people I would consider famous, as a biologist and a martial artist, are probably not the same people someone else would consider famous. I have no doubt that many of the most "famous" professional athletes and entertainers out there are people I've never heard of and would have no particular interest in meeting.

Cheers,

Michael

[livius drusus]

I've met (but didn't speak to) David Ogden Stiers.
That's probably for the best. If I were talking to David Ogden Stiers, I would find it impossible to refrain from asking him to say "for who could ever learn to love... a beast" over and over again.
:giggle:
I'd probably make him quote lines from MASH.
Ya, let's face it, he could read from the phone book and I'd be mesmerized.

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

"Famous" is a relative term.

so is "cousin"

[curses]

Ya, let's face it, he could read from the phone book and I'd be mesmerized.

Oh absolutely. He narrated an episode of NOVA and I was transfixed.

You need to know, however, that I've got the theme song to Beauty and the Beast stuck in my head...and also that Stires was in Lilo and Stitch.

And that apparently my collection of Disney DVDs is larger than I let on

[livius drusus]

I've got Belle's "new... and a bit alarming" line stuck in my head! :five:

[The Lone Ranger]

"Who'd have ever thought that ... this ... could be?"

[curses]

You are forcing me to go watch that. Forcing. I can't stop humming the bit in the hunting lodge with the Gaston song.

I never realized just how many Disney movies David Ogden Stires was in!

[livius drusus]

"Who'd have ever thought that ... this ... could be?"
:giggles: That's such a great bit. It's quite risque, really, but in a totally undercover Disney way.

You are forcing me to go watch that. Forcing. I can't stop humming the bit in the hunting lodge with the Gaston song.
No you are!1 (Although I'll be waiting until tomorrow at least because Brannagh's As You Like It is on HBO even as I type.)

I never realized just how many Disney movies David Ogden Stires was in!
What else was he in?

[The Lone Ranger]

He was in Pocahontas, as I recall, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Wasn't he in Atlantis: The Lost Empire as well?

He has also done a fair amount of non-Disney voice work, including Miyazawa's Spirited Away and the Justice League cartoons.

Cheers,

Michael

[wildernesse]

Professor Steve Steve lives at my house. Really? Wow! I've seen him on the internet!*

*that seems to have come off sarcastic, but twasn't meant to be so. It's just that I recognize so few of the "famous people" folks here are posting about, and I know Professor Steve Steve.


You could say that I helped "discover" the Professor. Ha.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Ooooh I forgot I met George Takai at a Sci-fi convention (props to Uthgar who didn't forget that). I also met John de Lancie (Q) at another one, but he was fairly brusque compared to George, who was really quite personable.

Have you ever been bitten by a Klingon?
:sulu:

[Stormlight]

I met the Grand-Duke of Luxembourg. So I win. :irwinnar:

[Watser?]

:giggles:

[livius drusus]

Grand-dukes totally, totally win. (Unless there's an archduke. Archdukes are just the slightest bit cooler.)

[viscousmemories]

I've been to two of Tom Robbins' book signings in Ann Arbor, and I've met some minor sports celebrities: Ali Haji-Sheikh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Haji-Sheikh), the NFL placekicker who's probably on terrorist watchlists for his name and Antoine (The Judge) Joubert, a former UofM basketball player who went on to play for the LA Clippers. I used to live with his cousin in SoCal.

[Brimshack]

I met the Grand-Duke of Luxembourg. So I win. :irwinnar:

Yeah, I was gonna ask how the other guy is doing.

[Zehava]

Adam West (60's TV Batman) --- brief run in at the PDX airport when I was a teenager. Didn't recognize him at first until a stewardess stopped him for an autograph.

Bill Walton (Trailblazer) -- shortly after the '76-'77 championship. Bill has/used to have a house near my home town of Sandy (in either Zigzag or Welches I think) and from time to time you'd run into him in local markets.

Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) -- she also used to have a place around Sandy up towards Mount Hood. She was the Grand Marshall in the annual Sandy Mountain Festival Parade one year.

[Stormlight]

I met the Grand-Duke of Luxembourg. So I win. :irwinnar:

Yeah, I was gonna ask how the other guy is doing.

:lol:

[MonCapitan2002]

I have never met a famous person in my entire life. The closest I have come to meeting someone famous was being in the same auditorium as Spike Lee and Magic Johnson. I have never even seen a famous person with my own eyes (in the sense that I am within that person's vicinity). I find this fact amusing considering the fact that I live in a municipality that attracts its share of the famous.

[One for Sorrow]

I once tore John Edwards's ticket as he boarded a plane.

[SharonDee]

Huh. I could have sworn I shared my Neil Diamond story or my Dick Clark story. But nope, not even my Billy Dean story or my Marty Stuart story.

Oh well, there's no point now.

[Dingfod]

The only one I can think of right now is meeting "Cowboy" (http://www.michaelcowboyellis.net/) from Big Brother 5 as he was walking into the hotel lobby as I was heading out to my car. He said howdy like the Doo-Rant, Oklahoma hick he is. I said "You're, you're ..." He said "Yup." I asked him how he was doing and he said "Fine." I went on to my car, he to the hotel.

[Pendaric]

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k225/baldbantam/Boxing/king.jpg

And loads of other boxing ones. It only counts if you have photos to prove it.

And I'm actually far better looking than 8 hours of jetlag and bad lighting made me look there.

[chick]

I've met many well-known activist atheists and am on a first-name basis with most of them. Of famous atheist authors, I met Richard Dawkins last year and expect to see him and the others (both authors and activists) at the AAI Convention next month in DC. The closest I've gotten to Penn & Teller was meeting Penn's assistant, Jeff.

I met Whitney Houston when I was in college and she was on her first nationwide tour. Her road manager (on that tour) was the older half-brother of a college friend.

Former pro wrestler-turned-comedian "King Kong" Bundy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_Bundy) lives on the same street as a friend of mine, about 5 miles away. Bundy used to rent out the house there but it became a crackhouse. Bundy cleaned it up and now lives there alone. I've seen him a dozen times but haven't ever met him.

[Kolski]

Been for a curry with Iain M. Banks.

Met Terry Reid who turned down Robert Plant's job in Led Zeppelin.

Jenny Bond, BBC TV Royal Correspondent.. (Her daughters are HOT!)

Did a few tour dates with John Martyn.