Have You Ever Met A Celebrity?
0 voters
I met kd lang at a crosswalk in Bellingham, Washington in 1989. She pulled up in a big black Ford Bronco and asked me for directions. (Seemed super-cool, but I was in such a state of shock, I really can’t say for sure.) I also met the former Premier of BC browsing in a bookstore (also in Bellingham), if that counts for anything. And Jane Siberry, another Canadian singer, after a concert in Seattle. (Oddly enough three Canadians, all before I moved to Canada, and all were met in the US.)
Having lived in Cambridge, UK I have seen a few well known people such as Stephen Hawking, plus some famous British comedians like Rory McGrath and David Baddiel while I was working in a restaurant there. Those last two names might not mean much to many people here…
Ted Casady, Pat Boone and Richard Boon are all relatives of mine…
I marked no one and then remembered that I met Michael Martin Murphy at the American Quarter Horse Heritage center
When I was on my first assignment in Plymouth, I bumped into Christopher Biggins, a famous children’s TV moderator from the 80s. I was in the hotel restraurant eating breakfast and was late to meet my colleagues outside to get to work. I was walking very quickly, as I rounded the corner going out of the room and nearly knocked Christopher over! It was only after I had apologised and walked on that I realised who I had nearly knocked over.
I met Jethro Tull and The Young Dubliners at a concert in Hameln, in Germany at the turn of the century. I spoke briefly with Tull, but the YDs were very friendly and we ended up talking for about 15 minutes during the break between sets.
At a motorbike show at Beaulieu there were famous bikes being ridden around by racers current and past (this was end of the 90s). I got to talk to several of them, including Carl Forgarty, Jamie Whittam and his lovely wife Andrea, and several others. All very friendly. It never seemed like you were talking to a celebrity, they just stood around and chatted with the other bikers, it was a great event. I was just standing in the crowd, when the commentator motioned me forward to hold onto one of the bikes, whilst he interviewed the rider, I just sort of stayed there after that and ended up meeting all the riders and then tagged along with them afterwards.
Another time, I was flying from the UK to Germany and I was sat with the McClaren F1 team, including Ron Dennis. Another time, I was in the same row as Boom Town Rat’s singer Bob Geldof.
I used to be involved in a lot of amateur racing and we would be at many race circuits at weekends and you’d meet a lot of motor racing giants milling around the pits. Again, it was great fun talking with them, nobody treated them like stars and they just talked normally about the cars and about racing in general.
There have been a few other chance encounters. But I’ve never run behind the celebreties or treated them any differently than anyone else I meet. I never collected autographs - especially in the sorts of situations described abouve; although the Young Dubliners did sign a CD for my then girlfriend for me.
But I’ve never really kept a record of who I met or when. Some like nearly knocking over Christopher Biggins or the long chat with the YDs stick in my mind, because they were something special. Other times, I’ve chatted to somebody for a few minutes, only for somebody to come up to me after they had moved on to ask me, if I knew with whom I’d just been speaking… Erm, no! 
One of the funniest was ex-athlete and TV star, Kriss Akabusi. He took his motorbike license test at the same time as me and we both bought bikes from the same dealer and, in the UK, you used to get a new registration year on the 1st August, so the dealer held a party on the 31st July and we got to ride off on the new bikes at midnight.
Kriss rode his custom off the forecourt and stalled it, you could hear his laugh all the way down the street. We both used to meet regularly for ride-outs from the dealer. We stopped one evening in a pub for a soft-drink, before riding back to base. He was worried about being recognised, so he sat there in a ski-mask. But he was laughing so hard, everybody was looking at him anyway!
While stationed in South Korea in 1993 I met President Clinton. Nothing more than a handshake and a ”Hello, where are you from?”, but it was pretty cool. The White House followed up a few weeks later with a signed photo of the meeting.
I met Sam the Sham of the Pharaohs. (Wolly Bully)
I’ve met a few over the years.
Met Sam J Jones (Flash Gordon), Adrian Paul (Highlander), Joe Flanigan (Stargate Atlantis), Kelly Hu (Nash Bridges and some movies), Taimak (The Last Dragon), John de Lancie (ST TNG), George Takai (Trek), Nichelle Nichols (Trek), James Doohan (Trek), Rick Springfield (musician), David Andrews (various shows).
And, I’ve met about 40 NHL players and gotten autographs (from the Philadelphia Flyers - I’ll spare you the list )… My favorites are Jaromir Jagr, Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds and Shayne Gostisbehere. but I have met many, many others.
That’s quite a list! And I noticed you said met, which is what the poll was asking about, not saw. (By that measure, I’ve “met” Joni Mitchell several times, as she owns a home near me.)
PS – Also, someone gave a like for Michael Martin Murphy, but not kd lang…are you people crazy??
Lon Channey, Boris Carloff, Michael Landon, Lone Ranger+Tonto (can’t remember their names ) Terry Bradshaw and Jojo, all of the Pittsburgh Steeler’s Steel Curtain. Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers. Back in the 1960’s - 70’s + 80’s. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh,Pa, Kid’s had a lot of opportunity to meet celebrities growing up in that city.
I ran out of “likes” - I couldn’t finish putting one on all the posts on this thread until later today 
I also made a typo on the poll, but it’s been too long and I cannot change it now.
I collect autographs - so, I have autographs from all those people. I do not like getting autographs thru purchases - I want to meet the people.
Now we’re talking…
You know I was just teasing 
(Sidenote: you can run out of likes? I had no idea.)
Yes indeed. You can only give out so many in a day, and it seems that you earn them back over hours.
I met the film director Todd Haynes when he was promoting his film Poison at a college campus. He was gracious with his time and super intelligent with a lot of insight into independent film making at the time (early 1990s). His current film is called Dark Waters. Also met Dave Davies of The Kinks, the late Dr. John, Al Stewart, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Marty Stuart, and the late Anthony Bourdain.
Roger McGuinn is (was?) a TWiT fan. I haven’t talked with him in a while but he’s quite the geek. I still have an autographed album cover of Sweethearts at the Rodeo on my wall.
Also, I once engineered a recording session for another one of my heros, Pete Seeger.
OK, now I’m freakin’ out. Todd Haynes is a god. Safe and Far From Heaven are two of my favorite films of all time. Not surprised he was as you described. (Also McGuinn and Davies…wow!)
Does being friends with Jeff Saturday (Former Center and Colts hall of fame star) and his family count as a celebrity meet?
We met through Burn camp here in Indiana. 