Have you met or seen a famous person up close? If so, who was it?

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Most of them I saw up close at some event like a concert, political rally, court hearing, ball game etc so it really wasn’t the place to go trying to make personal contact. Also, I personally don’t like to go chasing after famous people to say hello as it feels to me like an imposition on them and they usually already have more people trying to get their attention than they can handle.

Todd Rundgren wore my hat on stage and gave it back to me.
Stiv Bators stage dived onto my head and I ripped off his zipper pull in the process of pushing him back onstage where he belonged.
I had a chat with Arthur Brown at a festival and had my picture taken with him, which I almost never do but I was in a social mood that day (and he was wearing a most amazing multicolored sweater coat that looked like it was made of dishrags)
I worked with John Roberts on a project before he was a judge.
Archibald Cox signed a copy of a book for me. I also have books signed by several other Watergate “good guys”. I refused to talk with or have a book signed by John Dean because I considered him a “bad guy” and it would have been against my principles to go chasing after him, so I sat outside the room where he was talking to my buddy until they were done.
Birch Bayh used to work in my office so we did exchange pleasantries.
I did exchange a few words with Kellyanne Conway, I’d forgotten about that.

Edited to add, I forgot, I worked with Brett Kavanaugh on a project too. This was a couple decades ago when he was working as a special prosecutor. Neal Katyal was around all the time too. At that time he was just another law professor.
 
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Isn’t Gingrich Catholic? Did you meet them both at the same time?
 
stpurl said:
Alan Rickman
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I am officially pea green with envy (I’ll prolly have to confess it).

Once when I was a little kid I saw Frank Sinatra backstage (about five feet away) from being led to his car by the bodyguards protecting him from his screaming fans.

I knew Paul F Thompkins drew to a series of circumstances too convoluted and ludicrous to explain here.

And I was an extra in The Discoverers and briefly talked to Griffin Dunne and Cara Buono.
 
Eric Roberts at Frank and Musso’s in Hollywood. We were eating there at the time.

Dan Akroyd and Danny DeVito in Hollywood walking to a movie theatre.

American social activist Julian Bond registering at a hotel I worked at.

Robert Conrad of the tv show The Wild Wild West who came to my private college to
see his daughter and we ran into him at the dining hall. His daughter was in my
German class and had invited me to her home for the holidsys. We were in school
in Denver. I declined her invitation and at the time did not know her Dad was
famous. His daughter was beautiful.

Charles Barkley was eating lunch at the soul food restaurant I was eating at in
Phoenix one afternoon.

Kid n Play at a hotel lobby after a concert with MC Hammer and Bobby Brown
in Phoenix.

John Denver in concert at my college in Denver in a small auditorium just before
he became a household name.
 
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Bear, I have only been waiting for you to appear! 😉 I knew your list would rock!
 
That explains a lot, my mom used to be babysat by actors , she used to live in Los Angeles and largely grew up there. my grandpa worked in the movie industry, not in anything serious but he worked on sets for design.
 
I’ve met quite a few people active in politics, including some that have held office, but I’m excluding that for that very purpose. I’m pretty sure I have met famous people. I’ve definitely seen famous people, that kind of happens when you go to concerts.
 
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Let’s see… I met John Davidson and Rod Gilbert of the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Happened to meet Mel Allen, one time broadcaster for the N.Y. Yankees, after a Yankee game and had a nice conversation.
Shot baskets with Dean ‘The Dream’ Meminger of the New York Knicks…well mostly he shot and I gave the ball back to him lol.
Shook hands and small chat with N.Y. Giants’ football coach Jim Fassel.
Shook hands with N.Y. Knicks’ basketball coach Jeff Van Gundy.
Met and chatted with Fred Parris lead singer of The Five Satins in a small club.
Met and chatted with John Oates of Hall and Oates at the airport.
Chatted with J.J. Jackson one of the original D.J.‘s for MTV at a concert in Madison Square Garden.
Bumped into Alan Arkin on the street in NYC…hey how ya doin’?
 
Thanks, but I think I’m going to take it down because it feels braggy, and like I said, I’m not really into meeting famous people.

If it’s someone I admire, I like to see them do whatever they do that I admire (play a concert maybe) but I usually don’t like meet and greets, especially the “pay for access” kind which many musicians do to make money and many politicians do to build a war chest.

As Adam said, if you go to concerts or do any work involving film or politics, famous people are going to be around and it’s mildly interesting but no big deal.
 
7_Sorrows said:
John Denver in concert at my college in Denver in a small auditorium just before
he became a household name.
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That’s awesome, he was my first celebrity crush when I was 12. He was a “household name” by then so no chance of my ever meeting him or seeing him at a small club. I never even saw him live in concert, only on TV.
 
Back in the early 90’s my wife and I were in Baltimore for a trade show. We had an extra day so we went to DC to see the sights. When we got to The Capitol building, access was very limited. All we got to see was the rotunda. As we left we saw a gathering of people out back so we went and stood with them for a bit. After awhile secret servicemen came and addressed us. We were told we could stay, but to put our cameras away or lose them. Ok. This was getting interesting. Pretty soon a group of people came down the back steps of the building and walked toward us. We found ourselves standing just a few feet from a smiling Gorbachev. The other famous person we were close to was: (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
My sister works in communications so she’s met a number of celebrities. And she spoke on the phone once with Harvey Weinstein. 🤢 She reported at the time that he was quite obnoxious on the phone.

She also came across a filming of blue bloods and saw Tom Selleck. She said he’s very tall and has a booming voice.

I met Matilda Cuomo when I was a college student.

I also saw Cindy Crawford walking in Manhattan. I was impressed on how very pretty she is.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
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7_Sorrows:
John Denver in concert at my college in Denver in a small auditorium just before
he became a household name.
Click to expand...
That’s awesome, he was my first celebrity crush when I was 12. He was a “household name” by then so no chance of my ever meeting him or seeing him at a small club. I never even saw him live in concert, only on TV.
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It was my freshman year I believe, so I think it was the fall of 1970 or sometime in
1971. I remember seeing the posters and I think the concert was free!! It was a small auditorium, but it was packed. He was definitely one of my favorite artists
throughout the 1970’s.
 
George and Weezie were so much like my Irish-American relatives, I tended to forget they were African-American.
Weezie especially was a dead ringer for my Aunt Regina.
George was also the epitome of just about every single African-American politician in the public eye back in the day, and living where I did we had a ton of those.
 
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With my family in the music industry, I have met/worked with/have family friends who are famous people, in fact, both my father and my brother have reached a level of “fame”. One of my godchildren works in the film/tv industry. So, both my brother and godchild have IMDB pages.

When I was a kid, we were doing shows with country music legend Ernest Tubb. One day was his birthday, so, I gave him a package of Sweet Tarts candy.
 
Pope Francis several times, Fr. Larry Richards, Jeff Cavins, and Raymond Arroyo. I’ve met Fr. Mike Schmitz and Fr. Rob Galea.

I’ve met several country music stars when I was into country music. I worked at a small venue that put on concerts with these county stars, George Straight being the most memorable.
 
I saw John F. Kennedy before he became president. He was in the lobby of the Penn Harris Hotel in Harrisburg PA. My mother admired him a great deal and we lived about 30 miles away so I guess she figured it would be our only chance to see him in person. He was surrounded by people and smiling. I was very young but remember it well.

My husband and I went to Plains, Georgia after Jimmy Carter was president. We heard him give one of his Sunday School lessons. The church was full and there were secret service people that checked things out before he and Rosalynn came out.

I saw Chuck Colson give a speech at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.

I got an autograph from Frank Peretti who wrote novels about the spiritual world.
 
Autographs… That reminds me, but it’s sure going to date me…
I have several signed phonograph records from concerts I was at.
Dave Brubeck
Larry Elgart (he played at one of our college dances)
Hubert Laws
Harry James

One claim to fame… one of the Dave Brubeck concerts I attended was at The Crystal Cathedral. (This was in the 70’s, before the Church bought it and now is Christ Cathedral.) However, my signed LP was from the Monterey Jazz Festival.
 
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