The Most Famous Person You've Met

I met Lorne Greene when I lived in Hawaii....I was starstruck due to my enthusiasm for "Battlestar Galactica" and the golden retriever in his commercial for ALPO.

Also met a few bands while working as a radio broadcaster...big then, gone now.

Got a "nice ride" from Boyd Coddington while fillin' er up in Wendover.

My father is a pilot for Netjets...he gets to meet famous folk on a daily basis.
 
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Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter in a bar in Eauclair WI called the Left Guard. They were going to give a concert the next day in Mpls MN. Sat at the table in the back right next ours, They said if people recognize us we will have to leave. I know not real famous but it was neat talking to them.
 
I met Duane Dewey also, escorted him to a military function at the National Cemetary in Bushnell Florida. He gave us all one of his coins. Very humble Hero, with a special smile. Thanks for reminding me.
 
In no particular order:

George Harrison (ran into him waiting for Thai carry-out at a place near where we were renting on Maui)

Frank Zappa

Bonnie Raitt and most of Little Feat at a Mexican restaurant in Chapel Hill when I went to school there

Richard Nixon

George W. Bush

Chris Christie (before he was Gov. of NJ)

Johnnie Depp (years and years ago when he was filming "Cry Baby" here in Baltimore with John Waters)

Divine (everybody's favorite 300 lb. transvestite movie actor/-ress)

Cal Ripken (used to be a neighbor, sort of)

Ray Lewis

Johnny Unitas (lived down the street and around the corner, and owned a restaurant we used to go to a lot)

David Gilmour of Pink Floyd (twice, and a really nice guy)

The late Queen Mother (opening an exhibit at the British Museum and still working the crowd at around 90)
 
Forgive my spelling please. Most of these may not be world famous, but are known in certain circles.

Evander Holyfield
Dwight Goodman
Scott Stiener
Tim Lynch
Gene Wilson
Jim The Anvil
Jake The Snake
Davey Allison
Travis Tritt
Tyler Perry
Shane Macks Dad
Tanya Tucker
Rick Skaggs
Mario fossa
I maybe missing a couple

My Wife was in a movie a couple years back with.
Robert Duvall
Bill Murray
Lucas Black
Sissy Spacek
She was only able to get pics with Duvall and Murrey. The pic with Spacek was during filming. Sorry the pics aren't great.
 

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In my first post on this thread, I neglected to mention a bunch of folks I met through my pop, who was a newspaperman who covered entertainment. I was reminded by the thread on the death of Earl Scruggs, who I met, along with Lester Flatt, at a gig they did in Minneapolis in about 1963. In that time frame, I also met comic Lenny Bruce and jazzman Ramsey Lewis. In 1966, I got to visit the set of Batman and met Adam West. I was supposed to write up my visit for my father, but I was so star-struck that it came out too lame to be used.

I'll probably think of more. When we were young, Pop was always bringing home various performers who were in town.
 
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Carlos Santana, Buddy Miles... In the early 70's my cousin had a restaurant in S.F. that a recording/remix engineer frequented.

One night before the guy went off to work after having dinner, we (my brother bar tended, I played bus boy) got invited to come to the studio that night to watch him work.

We arrived around midnight, rung the bell at the locked entrance, and he brings us in and tells us that they're just about ready but still getting setup, ushers us into another studio and says "wait here"... inside, James Taylor is busy making a recording... at the time I had NO idea who he was, nor was I even remotely interested, at age 17 his style wasn't my cup of tea.

So about 10 mins later, we're retrieved and ushered over to another studio and as we walk into the control room, I immediately recognize Buddy Miles and my brother recognizes Santana and a couple of members from the band, Coke Escovedo is all I remember.

After the engineer got their permission, we got to sit in while they did the remix of a live concert they had just done in Hawaii.

During the course of the remix, they were trying to come up with a title for the B side of the album consisting of just one continuous track. Buddy Miles came up with "Free Form Funkafide Filth" while being ribbed by the Santana guys about the size of his "house on wheels" (tour bus) parked outside.

The next day, I went off to High School bragging to my buddies about the experience, and of course, I got a lot of "yeah, right..." comments. I ended up making a bet with the most vocal of my friends about what the song title of the B side would be when released... and after it was released, I got a bevy of "Holly ****" you weren't BS'ing about it!!

Ahhhh, talk about sweet vindication, I got a lot of subsequent mileage out of it by rubbing it in their faces for a period of time after that :D.
 
When I was a lad,back in the 50`s I flew in a Navy Air Partol Squadron (as gunner) with M.Scott Carpenter,who was Lt.jg at the time and was Navagator/Co-Pilot of the crew. Also even had a picture taken with G.H.W.Bush at a fund raiser the first time he ran for POTUS.
For all you youngsters out there Carpenter was one of the original seven Astronauts. He and John Glenn are the only ones of that group still with us.
 
A bunch of them for my family and I since we've been overseas. Some I can recall;
R. Lee Ermy
Call Ripken Jr
My middle daughter and I rolled (grappling) with Rich Franklin and Joe Stevenson
George Jones (long time ago)
 
I not only met, but I got to jam with Bruce Springstein when I was a young guy in New Brunswick, N.J. I was a lead singer in one of many local bands I had been in.

The state university, Rutgers, is in New Brunswick. The way N.J. law was back in the late 60s and early 70s, local residents of New Brunswick had free access to the Rutgers student union. The old student union bldg. was open on Friday nights for local bands to jam. Springstein and the E Street Band were only known in N.J. then, they hadn't signed a record deal yet.
I remember that night was the first time I played blues harp in public.
There was a buzz in the crowd that Bruce Springstein and his band was there. Honestly, I didn't know who they were at the time.
Just like a concert top biller, he went on last. The sound and originality knocked me out. They were all great but Clarence Clemmons was fantastic.
I was a very good singer (there are plenty around, the vast majority unknown, and I was trained since grade school, which didn't hurt). Springstein must have enjoyed it because we were all hanging around after the jam and we started talking and he complimented me on my singing. So, we went over to the piano that was kept in the auditorium and started jamming. He asked what songs I liked to sing. I said the Beatles. He played piano and I sang. I looked around while singing "Hey Jude" and there must have been about 75-100 people standing around and listening. After that we went outside, and to put it delicately, shared some "beer" together. That was another life time ago ( I went on to be a Probation Investigator for Middlesex County N.J. despite my youthful transgression ;)). It was a very fun night.
Soon he became deservedly famous. I just played in cover bands for another 10 or 12 years. I was not an original, a song writer. I could sing any part in 4 octaves but I didn't have the head or the discipline to write original music, nor did I ever find a partner to write the music to any lyrics I came up with. Looking back, I concluded I was too lazy and never had the motivation to see if I could have become a successful musician. That was my bane.

I guess I don't get around much, because that is the only famous person I ever met. Once in awhile I wonder if Springstein remembers that night, but as busy as his life has been, I doubt it.

I almost didn't share this, I've never told anybody but my wife about it for over 40 years because I thought nobody would believe it.
After reading some of the famous folks you guys have met, I said "what the heck, why not?"
 
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I reread most of this thread & realized I have met a few other folks.

Bobby Allison, the NASCAR racer-used to run into him at the grocery store when I lived in Hueytown.

The late Davey Allison, Bobby's son. He was married to the daughter of a man I worked security for.

Roy Jinks, the S&W historian. Talked w/ him several times in Richmond VA at the SWCA meeting in 2007. Also shared a breakfast table with him and Forum member tennexplorer at the same meeting.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She was in Birmingham AL for a function and I helped out with security with an offduty Jefferson County deputy. She is a tiny lady, in height! As to her other assets, well, not tiny at all. :D

The nicest was Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama. I stood next to him and talked for about an hour. We were at a Marine Corps drill team exhibition at the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham. Senator Helfin was a Marine officer during WW II and received the Silver Star.
 
Someone mentioned R. Lee Ermey. He's not the most famous famous person I've met (that would be Marilyn Monroe, and I don't have a picture her and the teenage me, unfortunately). But ol' Gunny and I have met. Here's a pic of us hangin'n out together.

GUNNYJOHN-PS.jpg


I've also been privileged to spend some time with the legendary John Bianchi; here's a pic of the two of us.

John

JOHN_BIANCHI_AND_ME.jpg
 
Van johnson and Warren Oats,met them during the filming of Black Beauty in the mid 70's,the film company was useing my boss's farm and horse's and we had a big bonfire picnic that night,and let me tell ya them 2 could put away some alcohol,dont remember much else
 
Jimmy Smith, Harold Jones, Ray Naples, Billy Boren, Harvey Grant, Sans Dupree, Mose Rondo, Jennifer Jet, and John Doe.
 
I was a Custom Shirt Manufacturer in Beverly Hills, CA and made several business acquaintances with so called "high profile" personalities while conducting business during the early 60's through to the early 1980's. Here's the list of people whose character impressed me the most, in no implied order.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans
Dean Martin
Frank Sinatra
Marty Robbins
President LB Johnson (during his Presidency) .........
..... the president was referred to me by his good friend Wesley West, a wealthy oilman client from Houston.
John Wayne
Elvis Presley
Lee Van Cleef
Gene Hackman
Mamie Van Doren
Robert De Niro
Dan Blocker
Michael Landon
Steve Martin and Burl Ives ...............
..... it happened that I bought a house on the same street (Romero Canyon Rd) as these two entertainers after selling the business and moving further north to Montecito/Santa Barbara, CA. They were both regular guys.

There's probably a few others, but while not being particularly "star struck", these were the most amicable and memorable of the bunch.

the Shadow
 
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FAMOUS

Just too many Grand Ole Opry stars to list. Here is a back stage photo taken from an old slide, I believe 1968, one night in March in Johstown, PA. I am second from the left looking at the photo. On my left is Tammy Wynette, BLESS HER MEMORY. George Jones is next to her. They were fun years in the day, but really not for a family man. My wife is on the end right of this photo and was expecting our first at the time.

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