Have you ever met anyone famous?

As told over three years ago here. How I met Mr. T.

copy/paste:

About 27 (30) years ago, I won a local radio station song contest and got a free trip to Jamaica for a week. About 30 people went on the trip with us and we stayed in a nice hotel in Kingston.

A tourist party was planned on one of the mountain tops at some old temple. 20 school buses brought tourists from many other hotels and we had a huge Rum Punch Bash. I got plastered drunk and was literally seeing double by the time I got my lobster dinner. Struggling to find a seat, I plundered through the crowd and saw an opening. Sitting down I splashed my plate all over the back of this huge black man. He turned around and yelled “What’s Up Suckah!”. It was Mr. T! And I was seeing two of him!

“Whatcha thinkin’ Foo”! was all I heard before he picked me up and carried me outside and dumped me in the grass. The last I saw was him walking away trying not to curse. He didn’t curse, and I didn’t go back inside the temple. I was trashed, and thought it best to get back on my hotel bus and sleep it off until the party was over.

The bus was locked, and for some stupid teenage reason, I thought I’d crawl under the rear axle and fall asleep. Surely I would hear the bus start up and catch a ride back. We were an hour away from our beach hotel and up on a mountaintop.

I awoke staring at the stars. The temple empty and dark, all the buses were gone with every tourist. I can’t believe I didn’t get squashed by the buses leaving. I should have died on that mountain.

Luckily the moon was full and I found my way to a road in the darkness. Only way to go was down. About fifteen minutes passed and a carload of stoned Jamaicans picked me up and drove me back to my hotel in Kingston. I never drank Rum Punch or saw Mr. T ever again.

Wow, thats pretty cool. That should be a film.

Neighbor is Tom Cruise’s older cousin by about 20 years.. Apparently Tom was a pretty normal kid.

I have actually met Lee Westwood in person. He was 14 years old at the time and I met him and his family whilst on holiday. His parents were bragging to me about how good he was at golf and embarrassing the poor kid.

I have also met Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, (former pro footballers), and I once worked with a woman who was a friend of Dominic Monaghan’s mum.

@downtide He was like that as a teacher. I was bad at Maths, so was pleased to hear about Golf!

@Supacase Sounds like a good neighbour to have.

Sure.

I sold cigarettes to Joe Perry of Aerosmith when I was fifteen, working at a tobacco store.

Gary Cherone (formerly of Extreme and, briefly, of Van Halen) worked at the record store in the same mall I airbrushed tee-shirts at (when I was in college). He’d come by and we’d chat a bit.

I later worked for an event company as a graphic designer and got to meet Nancy Kerrigan, David Copperfield, and Elton John, who were all clients.

Oh, and I almost literally bumped into Mike Tyson while walking down the street in Boston.

I met country singer Jimmy Wayne at the state fair and got his autograph, but his singing career never really took off.

My husband works with Emma Stone’s cousin. They haven’t seen each other since they were kids, but still…

@cookieman I love Gary Cherone!
I graduated from high school with Kathy Matea, country singer.
I met and had drinks with Billy Ray Cyrus’ brother and worked with his cousin.

I met Davy Jones, and Louise Harrison (George Harrison’s sister) and LeVar Burton from Star Trek The Next Generation. Oh, and both Julian and Sean Lennon.

I met the guy who made the zombie jesus comics
He liked my Burzum shirt :3

I’ve met Joan Jett, Davy Jones, (the race driver), John Andretti, Tony Randall, and I’ve been inches from Bruce Springstein.

Another Cruise story- my niece recently got to play with Suri Cruise at a wedding.

@chyna: At the time, Extreme was just getting going. He was a substitute gym teacher at a local high school and worked part-time at Record Town in the mall. My airbrush booth was just outside the record store – so he’d come out and watch me paint and we’d chat music.

There’s so much 90s in that answer, it’s not even funny.

If designers count I have met Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, Joseph Abboud, probably some others I can’t think of now.

I’ve also met several famous race car drivers who I cannot remember their names, in one ear out the other, except for Rafael Matos, because I used to see him all the time where my husband used to do Karting.

We hung out with sort of kind of Bobby Paltrow for a weekend, we also went to dinner with him one night, Gweneth Paltrow’s uncle. Oh, and actually when I was in my teens I was with her mom all day (Blythe Danner) because she was helping with a charity thing for my aunt.

Oksana Baiul the skater.

There might be others, but I am drawing a blank. If we count famous people I have seen on the street or restaurant, etc, that is a whole other list. More than 10.

I’ve met Dennis Rodman and a couple of other Detroit Pistons.
Dino Ciccarelli and Ted Lindsay, and a couple of guys from the band Nelson.

@JLeslie Oksana Baiul? That’s so cool. People used to tell me that I looked like her. lol That was back in ‘94?

@Katniss She was shopping at Bloomingdale’s Boca Raton one day when I worked there. She didn’t shop in my department, I only met her briefly.

I had a fairly routine job in highschool, kitchen prep and serving tables, but it was at a private recording studio.

I got to see a lot of famous artists, but my boss was uber-protective and would not let me near any of the bad boys (unless I got to go into the booth and listen in on recordings).

Looking back, I really respect my boss for that. I was so young and impressionable and he knew it. He didn’t want me to be another groupie.

I was allowed to meet non-threatening artists like Amy Grant, Sheryl Crowe, Al DiMeola, and my absolute favorite artist and human…. Carlos Santana.

Quite a few, thanks to my work in advertising and my love of the movies and theatre, including Burl Ives (folk singer and actor), Charles Keating (an advertising client – he crashed the S&L industry), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island”), Ed McMahon (Johnny Carson’s sidekick), Elena Holly (Buddy’s widow – we danced together), Gregory Peck (on phone), Haskel Wexler (director of many well known movies – he shot a commercial for me), Helen Hayes (actor), Herschel Bernardi (stage and screen actor, original voice of Charlie the Tuna), Jerry Gray (arranged many songs for Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller), Julie Newmar (the original TV Cat Woman), Herald Tribune newspaper co-workers Jimmy Breslin / Dick Schaap / Charlie Portis / Tom Wolfe / Walt Kelly / Walter Kerr / Judith Crist, Joel Grey (actor), John Hillerman (Higgins in “Magnum P.I.”) Jonathan Winters, Joseph Cotton and his wife Patricia Medina (actors), Kinky Friedman, Louie Nye (comedian), Mariette Hartley (actress), Martin Luther King (didn’t meet him but saw was present in Washington when he spoke at March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963), Mills Brothers (singing trio), Orson Bean (actor), Pat O’Brien (actor), Peter Falk (actor), Richard Basehart (actor), Roger Stauback (Dallas Cowboys QB), Ronald Reagan, Steve Allen, Tab Hunter (actor), Tony Bennett (singer), Walter Burke (actor), James Whitmore (actor),

Got to meet Carl Reiner at a book signing when I was a kid. That was super cool. Aside from that, all my celebrity encounters are super nerdy:

I met James Watson, co-discover of the DNA molecule, and Gunter Blobel, discoverer of the Bucky Ball.
Have a standing invitation to meet Françoise Barré-Sinousi, co-discoverer of HIV, when I go to France this year.
I’ve met the Franco-Tunisian filmmaker and professional badass Nadi El Fani and got to show her around my college.
I also met a famous French historian who would mean nothing to any jellies here, but she’s one of the biggest names in my subfield. She’s really lovely and has helped me in my research a lot already, and she invited me to attend one of her seminars this year.

I totally forgot about Walt Willey. He played Jackson Montgomery on All My Children.

My wife’s best friend’s cousin’s butcher’s hairdresser received a phone appointment from Benny Hill’s brother’s doctor, alas the appointment was not kept :D
As for myself, i’ve met Princess Diana, Bono, Dave Gahan (lead singer Depeche Mode) & a shit ton of footballers, most from my team who no one here will have heard of.

@ucme Princess Diana? Awesome!!

@Katniss i was a teenager at the time when she visited my town to open a new factory, me being an arrogant sod, I kissed her hand as she held it for me to shake…she smiled & moved away.

@ucme You seriously kissed her hand? I hate when men do that.

@JLeslie It’s kind of cute though. lol

@JLeslie I don’t care that you hate it, it wasn’t your hand & besides, I would have been arrested if i’d kissed her cheek or even worse, on the lips.
Took the only option available at the time given it was a royal, never kissed anyone on the hand since, so calm down dear,

@Katniss Cute in theory, but gross in practice. Although, I will say it is more acceptable to me that he was very young. Whenever a man tried to kiss my hand it was often some older guy when I very young. Older could be as old as I am now LOL, 45+, but when you’re under 21 that’s an old guy.

@ucme Well, with those options I am glad you simply chose to kiss her hand. It does make for a good story. I’ll give you that.

Kissing her hand was a massive big deal, everyone around me gasped, she was surrounded by big burly security types, but the opportunity was there so I took it.
She took it good spirit though, which was nice…cheeky 14yr old that I was.

She was a princess. I am but a lowly American, but kissing her hand seems like an acceptable thing to do if you can get away with it.

It’s so interesting to hear what types of seemingly minor things people have bad feelings about for one reason or another.

<——- Still in awe that @ucme met Princess Di lol

@ucme I would expect she would take it well. 14 years old, I credit you with being bold. LOL.

I’ve always been a cocky bugger…it’s a gift I know.

Yes, mostly actors, singers.

@ucme That is a great thing to be able to tell. I could have met her when I was 5, when she cam to our local hospital. Being the shy ‘I don’t like people type’, I cried and neither me or my mum met her. Wish I hadn’t have been so stupid.

@Headhurts Never been a fan of the royals, but she was bloody gorgeous.
I only turned up because I fancied the arse off her.

@ucme She was very attractive. Why she married Charles I will never know.

Why she married Charles? Future Queen of England maybe. Also, she was so very young, she didn’t know what she was doing. My aunt used to tell me I looked just like Diana. I don’t, she was the only one who ever said it to me. LOL.

@Headhurts Yeah, Charles is nowt but a jug eared twat!

For many years, “Captain” Kirk Douglas, the great guitarist and singer with The Roots has been a family friend. He played in bands with our daughter in high school and college, occasionally hung out at our house in New York at the time, and attended her wedding.

Although The Roots have won several Grammys, many people only know them as the ‘house band’ on the Jimmy Fallon late night show. Kirk doesn’t really get to “show his stuff” as a guitarist very much on the Fallon show, but in a live Roots concert, he is astonishing….

Oh yeah. In May we were checking out of our hotel in Atlanta and the comedian Chris Rock walked by and said hello….

Met, shook hands with, and photographed HRH Charles.
He took my camera and changed the lens feature to ‘zoom”( I did not know this at the time)
and we talked on varitey of subjects,
He was very charming and intelligent.
I was impressed with his stature and character at that time ( 1983).
Later I discovered that the picture was of his forehead only!
Another time I met the evangulist Billy Graham as my neighbor had two tickets and wanted me to go with her , otherwise I was not into this .
In short I ended up ON STAGE!
With him and 5000 fans! I really felt uncomfortable and I kept getting pushed to the stage where Billy Graham “Used’ whatever I said to his advantage by emphasising anything that
I said!
I felt that he was a SALESMAN selling his wares.
I really was not the Religious type and when he asked me ‘why” I was there I told him the truth, that my neighbor had tickets and needed someone to accompany her and that I Had my own Religion( Catholic) faith that I was brought up in.
The audience laughed.
Also that my neighbor had left suddenly to go to the stage as as she was my only way to get home again I followed her, then “lost” her in the crowd!
The audience laughed again! Then Billy Graham said“And will anyone here take this woman home’? Also “God will take her home tonight”!
Ohh my god, I was soo embarrassed of being used !

I was also afraid of my neighbor leaving me there and not finding her again!
One of Billy Graham’s son’s saw me hiding behind an amplifier
(as everyone that had gone to the stage had been on there knees!).
Billy Graham’s son asked me why I was hiding and I explained the whole
situation to him then.
He then dragged me to meet his father Billy Graham on the stage( me protesting)!

Well he and the audience got an earfull of my protesting ( since they wore tiny microphones on ther lapels)and then explaining everything!
It was sooo embarrassing.
A spotlight was put on my neighbor!( as SHE was the one who left me alone) Everyone booooed!
So that I could locate her later too!
She was angry with me?
( I think that SHE wanted to be on stage instead).
It was only me and Billy Graham on stage! We settled into a nice conversation about the audience and how it felt to be on stage etc
After that experience I never felt uncomfortable appearing on stage for anything in my life.
That was the exillerating experience, of being on stage!

It continued until the next day when Billy Graham kept harrassing me and my husband with
Gospel, proverbs , praying on the phone etc!
It ended with my then husband swearing at him on the phone!
My neighbors and my husband and I did not want to visit again!
I never went to any Evangualistic affairs again!

I ALMOST me Adrien Brody when he was filming the movie High School. They were right on the street next to mine filming some scenes.
I was like the movie set stalker. lol
They actually put a cop on me. At one point AB was standing like 5 feet from me. I was going to make my move when I looked over at my police buddy and he shook his head no. I don’t look good in orange so I let it go.
It was pretty cool though.

No, but once when I was posing as Kimora Lee-Wannabe on Twitter, I got sext messages from Carlos Danger and Client 9. ;-)

Musicians – too many to count when I worked at Strawberry Records in Kenmore Square
Steven Tyler in an elevator at Mass General (funny story goes with it)
Techy – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Meg Whittman, Ken Olsen, An Wang
Soccer – Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Kristine Lilly

My Grandfathers Brother was the podiatrist of the Mayo Brothers. They brought him on to head the Podiatry section of the Mayo Clinic.

@blueiiznh: Ahh, Strawberry Records – now there’s a memory. I used to go to the one in Medford, at Wellington Circle.

I was in the first class cabin of a flight from Pittsburgh to L.A. I heard the loud and annoying voice that sounded familiar. As I went to get my computer from the overhead compartment, I saw that it was Richard Simmons. (Not the one from Kiss but the curly headed on that wears shorts everywhere. He does the “Sweating to….” exercise videos). I muttered that I hoped that he would be quiet for the rest of the flight and he heard me and insisted that I apologize to him and the other passengers. I told him to “fuck off” and I though he was going to explode. I thought that was pretty funny; so did some other passengers. I also realized that he shaved his legs. What a pain in the ass!

@Ron_C “Not the one from Kiss…”

That would be Gene Simmons, not Richard.

Seems to me that the only pain in the ass on that flight was you.

@livelaughlove21 OH! I stand corrected. All I know is that he has a really long tongue; the guy from Kiss, not the curly headed loud guy.

I also met Mr. Rogers in a Thrift Drug store in downtown Pittsburgh. I shook his hand. He was just as nice, in person, as he was on television.

I love Richard Simmons lol

Who the fuck is Richard Simmons?

@ucme Sweatin’ to the Oldies? The exercise guy that was big with overweight middle-aged women in the 80’s and 90’s.

This loud mouth is Richard Simmons, @ucme

Okaaaaaaay, he does look like a Dick, so his name suits.