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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tommy999
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
libbeylu said:
When you say “famous” …please explain
Click to expand...
It just means name recognition.

It’s not a judgement on their character.

A former co-worker lived on the same street as John Wayne Gacy. He’d mention it from time to time, not like “I know a famous person!” But like “You really don’t know your neighbors!”
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
A former co-worker lived on the same street as John Wayne Gacy. He’d mention it from time to time, not like “I know a famous person!” But like “You really don’t know your neighbors!”
Click to expand...
A former co-worker of mine in high school ended up murdering his wife about 10 years later. I really didn’t know my co-worker!
 
We come close, and in heaven we will truly know each other.
 
Last edited:
Glennon_P said:
A former co-worker of mine in high school ended up murdering his wife about 10 years later. I really didn’t know my co-worker!
Click to expand...
A former co-worker of mine was a champ on several game shows including “Jeopardy” and then in some kind of bizarre stalking situation, broke into the house of a well-known state legislator, tied up his wife in the basement and beat her with a pipe. The wife managed to escape and my former co-worker was sentenced to prison and banished from the state where it all went down upon release. They are not allowed to spend any time in the state other than just passing through it to travel elsewhere.

I knew this coworker as a pretty milquetoast type who liked to travel and bake, and was always bringing in big trays of cookies to share. You never can tell. I still have one of their boxes that they used for holiday cookies on my mantel.
 
Last edited:
One other one that I forgot, mainly because it’s embarrassing. I met the actor who played Cal on as the world turns. But I wasn’t watching the show for a long time, so I didn’t recognize him, and didn’t act all fangirl like. I just said “please to meet you” politely. I didn’t know his real name.

I was told that he was on As the world turns after the fact
 
I once helped Carter Oosterhouse, a carpenter from the show, Trading Spaces, design an apparatus for one of their shows. Or, to be more exact, I helped an actual carpenter, his “assistant”, design the apparatus. Carter just stood there. I have a feeling he was more actor/model than carpenter. Never knew we had so many woman working in the building😍
 
Last edited:
I’ll list a few:
  1. Cardinal John Dew - I have shaken hands with him while serving at Mass during the Rite of Peace. I have seen His Eminence around 5 times.
  2. Cardinal Thomas Williams - At a Mass I attended (celebrated by Cardinal Dew) a few weeks ago.
  3. New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.
  4. Charles, Prince of Wales (Prince Charles).
  5. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
  6. I have had email contact with a well known FSSP priest named Fr Antony S (he is on wikipedia).
  7. The bishop emeritus of Dunedin - Bishop Colin Campbell.
  8. Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir Bill English (at Mass most Sundays).
  9. Simon Bridges, official oppostion leader in New Zealand.
My grandfather saw Queen Elizabeth II in around 1947 as a teenager, during his first trip to London. She was only a princess then.

My grandmother stood next to the British Prime Minister, the Earl of Stockton, Harold Macmillian in Rhodesia during the 1960s.

My mother saw Pope St John Paul II three times.

My sibling’s friend’s grandmother was a British peer, with the title of ‘Baron’ who sat in the House of Lords.

If I remember correctly, I may be related to the Protestant-to-the-last Queen of England, Lady Jane Grey.
 
Last edited:
Yea to Abp Vincent Nichols. As for Abp Ganswein probably.

The Popemobile passed with a matter for metres (or feet in you prefer) of me (close enough to read the license plate) while I was screaming like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert!
 
I guess that could be consider infamous? Would that count too since they’re also well known (just not positively)?
Also would it count I’ve seen the Mona Lisa in person? Not a tangible person, but a painting of a person!
 
Last edited:
We attended a rosary in the Pope’s chapel in 1991 and got to touch the hand of Pope (now Saint) John Paul II.

If we aren’t too nit-picky, I also met singer Barbara Mandrell at her concert in El Paso in 1981 (I was a huge fan of hers during the time she had a weekly TV show); we passed by Fr. Mitch Pacwa in the airport in Albuquerque (we did about 2 minutes of "Is that… That looks like… Do you suppose that’s…?); and about six years ago, I met up with my high school friends to attend a Rick Springfield concert at the Inn of the Mountain Gods in Mescalero. While waiting for them to show up, I went to the coffee shop to get something to drink. I was in line behind a young couple who were discussing Springfield vs. Springsteen when I glanced over my shoulder and there was a tall man with long hair and dark glasses standing behind me, about five feet away. I smiled and nodded, he did the same, and I turned around, then froze.

“It can’t be…” I thought and I did a very slow double-take.

He smiled, looking over his glasses at me, and nodded.

I turned back around, I know my face was bright red, and I managed to keep my composure, order my coffee, and then nodded pleasantly as I passed him on my way out. Yes, I thought of asking him for his autograph, but I also felt bad that he couldn’t go get a latte without being asked for a picture or autograph. But I also never told my girlfriends; they’d have never forgiven me for being that close and not taking advantage!
 
One weekend, back in the twentieth century, I was in Brussels, Belgium. I was walking along one side of Square Marie-Louise toward Maelbeek metro (subway) station. It was a very quiet afternoon, there was hardly any traffic on the street, and there were hardly any other pedestrians, either. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a car coming up behind me and for no particular reason I turned my head to watch it drive past. It was a very ordinary small French car, possibly a Renault. Tightly squeezed into the little car were five very large black men, two in front and three in back. I immediately recognized the one in the middle on the back seat. For many years we had been used to seeing his photograph in the papers. It was Mobutu Sese Seko, then the dictator of Zaire (since renamed Congo) and reportedly one of the wealthiest people in the world. Mobutu and the two bodyguards next to him must have noticed from my expression that I had recognized him, and all three of them looked strangely upset and anxious on that account. That’s all. The car drove on and I walked to the station and caught my train without any further incidents.
 
Cher. She was so very kind and gracious. Many years ago, a group of friends and I were in a bookstore in NYC and she walked in with her boyfriend and Chastity Bono. One of my friends had a camera, ( this was long before cell phones) and asked her if he could take her picture. She agreed. My friend decided that the lighting in the store was bad and asked her if she would go outside with him to take the picture! I was shocked that he had the chutzpah to ask her that. I was even more shocked that she said yes. She couldn’t have be nicer! I’ll never forget how kind she was.
 
I’ve met Pope Francis, Cardinals Burke, Wuerl, Dolan, Archbishops Gaenswein and Chaput, among others. I’ve also met the lead singer from Flogging Molly and his wife, the fiddler. And Russell Wilson, the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks, when he was playing minor league baseball in a town near me at the time.

-Fr ACEGC
 
I saw St. Pope John Paul II drive by in a car in London as a child before I was Catholic and saw Pope Benedict XVI in London with my wife.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top