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Famous person you have seen, met, or know personally

edisraf

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
I was reading and saw where someone saw President Reagan and his wife drive by and the Prez and Nancy waved to them.

So I wondered if anyone else had seen, met or knew any famous person. Extra credit if said person is connected to Star Trek.

As for me, I knew Dave Winfield (baseball player) in college and grew up with Jon Vezner (country song writer and married to Kathy Mattea, though I have never met her or seen Jon in years). I once met Charles Colson and spent a day with 1997 Miss America Tara Holland (Christensen) and her husband Jon.

And I don't know how famous he is, but I am friends with the founder of Merry Maids, Dallen Peterson.

raf

Oh, two more sightings. Had a bunch of kids on a field trip in Minneapolis and saw the governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, drive by in his Hummer. And might have seen Michael Nesmith of Monkeys fame riding a chopper near Yosemite Park in California. Looked like him and had the toque.
 
I've seen JK Rowling. I've never met her or anything but she lives not far from me.
 
I lived in the dorms in college next door to Mark Tauscher, who now plays for the Green Bay Packers (kinda, but only when he wants to).

I've met Reggie White, Bob Woodward, President George W Bush, Ron Pallilo, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Elton John, Gail O'Neill, and Gary Burghoff, Sandra McDonald, Barbara Luna, the guy play Stonn in the ep. Amok Time, and the guy who played Icheb on Voyager (I can't spell Manu's last name).

My wife, who was a big name in maintaining the fandom of the Tomorrow People, was a guest of honor at the show's 30th anniversary party. She and David Prowse were assigned to be the guests of honor together at one of the dinner tables.

Someday, though, I'd like to meet the great NASA audio engineer Michael Cunningham.
 
I was in Boy Scouts and high school with the bass player for the Zac Brown Band.
 
Some of my family are moderately famous, one of my great Uncles was a Broadway Actor who starred in a couple of episodes of Trek. Some other members of my family are active in the world of Traditional Music. I have some friends who have been on TV and I've been on TV myself a couple of times. I've met a couple of 'famous' people also.
 
I've met Tony Randall, Harlan Ellison, Jesco von Puttkamer, Joan Winston, Peter David, Neil Gaiman, George Takei, Robert Aspirin, Kelly Freas, James Doohan, John DeLancie, Jonathan Harris, Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Dick Giordano and Julie Schwartz.
 
I didn't personally meet them but I saw the whole TOS cast at a convention in New York way back in 1975.
 
Thanks - I think so. Meeting George was great - it was at a small convention in 1982 and he was able to spend a lot of time just enjoying the con with the rest of us.

Yeah George Takei along with James Doohan and Leonard Nimoy always seem like the most approachable of TOS actors in public. Its a shame that some of us never got to meet Doohan, because i've heard that he genuinely was one of the nicest guys out there and that he was very good to his fans.

Leonard Nimoy seems the most comfortable to go over the same old stuff about the Spock character, which really is a great thing for any Character Actor.
 
Living where I do, and having previously studied here as well, it's not unusual for various well-known or significant people to come and give talks or whatever. Would be difficult to rattle off a long list of those I've met in passing and spoken a few words with, or simply heard during a Q&A type of session.

Do I count anyone (inter)nationally famous as a close personal friend? No.
 
I got a nod from Michael Hogan (BSG) at a performance of the Nutracker about 5 Christmases ago. Also sat a few seats over from Robert Picardo at a Bard play here in Vancouver. I was a few seats over from Jason Momoa and Joe Flanigan at the peelers at my buddy's bachelor party. Was also hanging out with Nick Nunziata (owner of CHUD.COM) having some drinks at a bar, when Tori "footface" Spelling walked by us.

My most memorable encounter though was when I was at Vancouver Airport heading to London, UK to my Grandfather's funeral, when I ran into Aaron Douglas (BSG) who was waiting to pick up his son. Aaron stopped and chatted with me for about 10 minutes and even signed an autograph for me :) Oddly enough this was the day BSG's cancellation was announced.

I've also met Geoff Courtnall of the Vancouver Canucks.
 
I can’t say I’ve ever met any big stars, but my mother’s second husband was film and TV composer Joe Harnell (The Incredible Hulk, V). They were married for 20 years until his death in 2005.

alice-mark-joe.jpg


That’s my mom on the left and Joe on the right. The guy in the middle, I don’t know who the hell that is.

When I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows lived just a few blocks from us. Every Halloween they’d have a barbecue on their front lawn and hand out hot dogs to the trick-or-treaters. And Annette Funicello was a regular shopper at the local Gelson’s market.

Yep, dropping those names makes me feel like an old fart.
 
Hmmm, most of the famous people I have seen in person has been through conventions so I almost don't even count them. The usual kind of people: Hilary Swank, Chase Masterson, Tito Santana, Margot Kidder, Richard Hatch, Chewbacca, etc. Although apparently if I had exited a room 30 seconds earlier I would have had Stan lee walk past me. I am a rather shy guy though so I never engage them in conversation.

The only random celebrity I have encountered was the actor Dylan McDermott in the Rose Cafe restaurant. It is funny to me because my girlfriend recognized him immediately, but thought it was Daniel Day-Lewis.:rommie:

When I was a kid I stood on a stage right next to Leon Panetta whose name you should know if you are following the Bin Laden news.

I also found out recently a woman I already knew was the April 77 Playboy Playmate.

My girlfriend in her younger days was a typical socially active L.A. kind of girl and celebrity encounters are quite common in that world. Her and her friends have a million stories about meeting celebs and even hanging out with them. She worked at the same place Courtney Love did and even used to go see her strip. Her ex was part of a sci-fi circle and was friends with Harlan Ellison and she had dinner at his house once. Another friend of hers knew the Arquettes and she hung out with them. Her and a friend once saw Mick Jagger in a club and devised this elaborate plot to have him brush by them when he left but his security foiled that:lol:.
 
I've met a whole bunch of scifi actors at conventions - a few were in the 'just barely hello' category (Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, David Boreanaz, and a few others), a few were in the '1 min conversation category' (Kate Mulgrew, Armin Shimmerman, Robert Beltran and a few others)...but the two most important, for me, were Avery Brooks, who I talked with for about 5 min...and Peter Jurasik, who I talked with for about 10-15 minutes (he gave me a lot of time when I told him that Londo Mollari was my favorite scifi character ever at a con that wasn't that crowded for B5 stars! Peter Jurasik was very kind to me - by far my most positive encounter with a scifi actor I have had to date). One scifi actress I actually met in person was quite nice at that time, but has caused me no end of grief since...so I have 'revised' my original opinion and now would prefer to forget the original encounter ever occurred. :lol:

Outside of scifi conventions, I have only met 2 high-profile celebrities in situations where I actually got to stand and chat with them for a while:

*Former President Jimmy Carter (not that hard if you live in Atlanta, GA)
*Bruce Springsteen (this conversation I regard as my most important 'brush with greatness')

I have seen other celebrities in airports, at speeches they gave etc...or met a few famous authors at book signings...I even used to sit behind the Governor of the State of Alaska at Mass every week when I lived in Anchorage...but I didn't vote for the guy, so I didn't give a shit about that. :p

Nah....President Carter and The Boss are the only ones I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to for a few min that I actually care about. Although I did used to bike race with Tommy Moe - Olympic Gold Medalist in the Downhill, when I lived in Anchorage. Not sure if that counts as a 'celebrity' though. Although I guess so - I mean, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and everything. But to me, he was just a bike racer. :lol:
 
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