Meeting the living legends

[Admiral Archer]

So in 2009, just a few months after the JJ Abrams "Star Trek" film was released in theaters, my little brother got to go to Comic Con in San Diego (my family was living in San Diego at the time, so it was relatively easy to get there, and I guess he asked for tickets for his birthday or whatever). When he got home one night, he came up to me excitedly and said,"I got to meet Leonard Nimoy!" Needless to say, I was livid, and super jealous, as I had decided not to go. He told me of how he saw Mr. Nimoy sitting at a booth with no line, and he got a bit starstruck and said "Mr. Nimoy, may I just shake your hand?" He said Mr. Nimoy was very friendly, and agreed to the request. My brother didn't know what else to say, except "Thanks!" And I've never forgiven him for getting to meet Spock. LOL Just kidding!

Who else has met one of our living legends? I wish I could have met Jerry Goldsmith, but he passed long before I knew who he even was by name. Share your stories below!

 

[NCC-73515]

No line - are you sure it was him?

 

[Vger23]

I’ve met Shatner twice. The last time was in Ticonderoga at the Star Trek Tour. He was awesome and chatted very briefly with me. He also chatted with my wife. Very cool.

 

[Admiral Archer]

No line - are you sure it was him?

I'm pretty sure it was earlier in the day, or at a time when lines were reduced (maybe just after lunch?), because my brother said after he shook Mr. Nimoy's hand, a big line formed behind him. Mr. Nimoy had apparently just shown up, and my brother was just at the right place at the right time.

 

[Odo]

Posted this before on another thread:

I met Avery Brooks a decade ago at a talk at the Philly Library. Such a lovely guy. After the talk, about a dozen fans came up to him - he was taken aback, but deeply appreciative. I remember someone handing him a boxed Sisko action figure to sign - he looked at it and joked, “What a fine young man he was! A fine young man!” then signed it. During the talk, he wasn’t as interested in answering questions about the show itself, but was still nice in his answers. Even if Trek isn’t as interesting to him as it is to us, he’s always been very kind to fans.

He did seem to have a deep appreciation for the show from what he said, just seemed tired of talking about it. He’s never been fully comfortable about Sisko becoming what he’s known for, but that kind of feeling is not unusual with actors.

 

[NCC-73515]

I had brief direct conversations with Garrett Wang, Tim Russ, Casey Biggs, Suzie Plakson, JG Hertzler, John De Lancie, and Brian Brophy, and talked to Bill Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Vaughn Armstrong, Alice Krige, Rene Auberjonois, and Dominic Keating at panels.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

It wasn’t at a convention but still, I got to sit down and have a longer conversation with Sir Patrick and I can only say he is the most wonderful man ever. (I’m not biased at all, of course.)

 

[1001001]

I have met tons of Star Trek actors. Most have been great, a few have been okay, a couple have been...not so great.

That's probably more than you wanted to know....

 

[Tosk]

Was Billingsley awesome? He always seems like he'd be awesome.

 

[1001001]

Was Billingsley awesome? He always seems like he'd be awesome.

Billingsley is a miserable bastard. A vulgar, drunken misanthrope.

Spoiler: What's More...

He's actually a good friend of mine. A delightful guy. Smart as hell. Passionate about politics and justice (the picture of me and Tim Russ is actually from a political fundraiser at John's house). He is a very funny guy, can curse a blue streak. Big Dodgers fan. He and his lovely wife (Chuck's Bonnie Friedericy) work tirelessly at the Hollywood Food Coalition, a food rescue program that serves hot meals to the 200-300 people experiencing homelessness every night. In other words, an all-around wonderful human being.

 

[Odo]

@1001001

I gotta meet him someday!

 

[Tosk]

Billingsley is a miserable bastard. A vulgar, drunken misanthrope.

Spoiler: What's More...

He's actually a good friend of mine. A delightful guy. Smart as hell. Passionate about politics and justice (the picture of me and Tim Russ is actually from a political fundraiser at John's house). He is a very funny guy, can curse a blue streak. Big Dodgers fan. He and his lovely wife (Chuck's Bonnie Friedericy) work tirelessly at the Hollywood Food Coalition, a food rescue program that serves hot meals to the 200-300 people experiencing homelessness every night. In other words, an all-around wonderful human being.

Some Trek people you wanna meet because they're Trek people, and some you wanna meet just because you can tell they'd be great to be around. He always struck me as the latter, so I'm really glad to hear that.

 

[ChallengerHK]

I met all of the TOS stars aside from Nimoy, and most were under odd circumstances. At my first convention my 10 year old niece came out of the restroom yelling "I went to the bathroom with Lt Uhura!" which gathered a little crowd. She was amused and talked to us for a few minutes. I met Takei and Kelley at the opening of the Toys R Us in Tyson's Corner VA.

 

[1001001]

I met Takei and Kelley at the opening on the Toys R Us in Tyson's Corner VA.

We got to spend about 15 minutes talking with George Takei and his husband Brad at a convention in San Francisco a few years ago. Quite interesting. Takei is very good with fans. Maybe just a tiny bit full of himself? But in a harmless way.

(I don't normally show this photo because of how heavy I was at the time! )

I see the Las Vegas Convention has been postponed again until summer 2021. We used to love going to the conventions. Back in the glory days, there would be 1 or 2 a year in this area. Now Vegas is the only one Creation does anymore.

 

[Forbin]

I'm not much for going to those events, and I'll only tag aloing with a freind once in a while. Too shy. The one I sought out, though, was Patricia Tallman, 'cause I'm just in awe of her - actress, stuntwoman, worked on B5 and Trek shows, stumps children's charity, and rilly pretty. I stood on line at a Chiller con and talked to her for a bit, starstruck, wearing my fan club t-shirt, which she called Bill Mumy over to see (he shrugged, ignored me, and asked her what kind of pizza she wanted ). She was a really sweet person.

Then at a Creation con, I sort of accidentally found myself at Suzy Plakson's empty table - she was mixed in with some vendors, so it was a surprise to suddenly see an actor instead of merch . So I went "oh! Hi!" We chatted about her other projects like the sitcom Love and War. She seemed to appreciate the change from Trek. I was so surprised to 'run into her' that I was way more relaxed. She too was an absolute sweetheart.

That's it for me. I have way more active friends who go to cons all the time. My friend Frank got his pic taken with the Shat in one of those cattle call photo sessions. He also hung out at a hotel bar with Garret Wang for an evening, and reports that he's a really nice, friendly guy. Frank's more of a Lost in Space fan, so he's actually made friends with that cast, seeing them more often at cons. He had dinner with Marta Kristen :O Not alone, mind you, but still!

I was staff artist at Scarlet Street magazine back in the 90s, and the editorial staff did the cons back then. The mag covered classic horror and genre films and TV. The editor and publisher interviewed Jack Larson and Noel Neill for the mag, and struck up friendships with both, hanging out at every con they were at. Again, totally nice people, and the staff reports that Lois Lane could drink them all under the table. .

 

[Forbin]

Oh, and I had a friend who encountered Shatner back in the 70s, when he was traveling around doing local theaters. My friend worked at a local NJ mall theater. After Shat's show, my friend couldn't get his car started, and was tinkering under the hood. Shat was driving by, stopped, and asked if he needed any help! So my friend never believed the bad stories about the guy who was so nice to him. "Hey! Captain Kirk helped me out once!"

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Never been to a convention. Part of me would love to go to one someday, but part of me doesn't as I'd never know what to say to an actor I really liked and would be mortified if they were having an off day (or if they were just generally a dick) and it spoiled my opinion of them and changed how I saw the character.

 

[ChallengerHK]

Never been to a convention. Part of me would love to go to one someday, but part of me doesn't as I'd never know what to say to an actor I really liked and would be mortified if they were having an off day (or if they were just generally a dick) and it spoiled my opinion of them and changed how I saw the character.

In my opinion (and I suppose in keeping with the theme that nothing is what it used to be, dagnabbit) I don't enjoy most cons any longer. When I first started going (mid 70s) they were generally relaxing, easy-going places where you could run into just about anybody, or nobody, and spend time sitting and talking. Nowadays the bulk of conventions (your CreationCons and Comicons) are geared around assembly-line style selling of photo ops and autographs.

I did enjoy one of those cons but not really for the con itself. I had a friend who was VP of Kevin Smith's fan club (the guy who played Ares, not the director producer). We ran into him in the hotel lobby, and she was being fan girl while I stood there smiling. He signed something for her, and then reached out to me and said "Would you like an autograph, mate?" I said "I don't really do autographs or stuff like that, but if you wanna have a seat at the bar and shoot the breeze I'd love to." He was surprised at that, but we did go have a few drinks. I found him to be a lot smarter than I had picked him for being, a devoted family man, and easy to talk to on a variety of subjects. That's what cons used to be.

 

[RPOW0614]

I have only been to one Star Trek event here in Boston. While standing on the sidewalk outside the convention hall having a cigarette with friends I spotted Rene Auberjonois walking into the hall. He stopped and chatted with me and my friends for a few minutes, nice guy. But he was a little surprised by my question about his recent stint on Archer. I asked him if it was fun to play a "German assassin with a needy child bride".

The other fun moment that day was when I was standing in a long hallway and saw Nichelle Nichols being driven to her "greet room" in a golf cart. I saw her and said to the three people I was with (my girlfriend, my sister and my best female friend, all trek geeks) "Hey! Quick turn around!" I expected them to turn and see Lt. Uhura, but no I got this response "Why, what are you up to?" in some form from the three of them. I laughed and said "okay...."

They saw the back of Nichelle's head as she drove by.

 

[F. King Daniel]

You know the saying, "never meet your heroes"? I live by it, and fear meeting any Trek people would put me right off them and the show.