Meeting celebs... share your stories...

Most of the time when I try to recall people I've met, I come up blank until the next day when I'm doing something else, especially with actors.
I never go geek mode and never interrupt their day, but sometimes you just have to say, "Hey, how's it goin'? Love your music/movies/etc."

Astronauts:
Alan Shepherd in the MCC restroom during the 20th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing. Arrogant but funny, and no, I didn't shake his hand!

Deke Slayton while he was fiddling with his yellow Stearman he kept next to the drop zone hanger in League City. His facial expression was intimidating and serious, but start talking aircraft and he warmed up. Sadly, he died a few years later.

Jim Lovell (Gemini 7, Apollo 8 and 13) was a neighbor when I was in high school, and we didn't even know he was a former astronaut at first. Really nice, unassuming guy. I think he was going through a divorce. He loved his old Mustang.

Rusty Schweickart (Apollo 9 and Skylab 2) was a quiet but kind hearted guy. We met during the 20th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing.

Dr. William Fisher (STS 51-I) was working in the Clear Lake Hospital ER when I was a student doing clinicals there. He was nuts, but in a funny way.

Sam Gemar (STS-38, STS-48, STS-62) was in the Nassau Bay VFD with me and active when not assigned to a mission. He was really fun to hang out with and definitely one of the guys!

Mike Massimino (STS-109, STS-125) was at a community swap meet at the Gilruth Center. He was one of the people who repaired the Hubble. He started giving me shit about the Bruins jersey I was wearing, threatening to double the price of something my wife was buying! He's an Islander fan. Funny, but intense guy. After the sell, I let him know my wife is a Flyers fan and he laughed while threatened to take everything back.

Christa McAuliffe (51-L) had an office in the building I first worked in at JSC, since the astronaut office building ran out of room for the "tourist" astronauts. She was really sweet. We mostly talking about teaching and kids since my sister was also a teacher.

Story Musgrave flew 6 shuttle missions and is likely the most intelligent person I've ever met. I knew his son, Scott, but never made the connection until Story showed up at one of his gigs. He had earplugs in! I remember him listening to classical music while we were performing his EVA suit bends prevention training and testing.

That is a hell of a list. The only astronaut I ever "met" was Neil Armstrong. I've told the story here before. He was a special guest for the graduation ceremony for the school of science when I got my Ph.D. degree from Purdue. His undergrad degree was from Purdue and he was a pretty regular sight on campus for homecoming and graduations in my era at Purdue. I got to shake his hand when I walked across the stage at graduation. The dean read my thesis title when I walked across the stage to get my diploma and Armstrong said "you must be pretty smart, I don't know what the hell any of that means" to me when he shook my hand. It was handshake with the Dean, handshake from your thesis advisor, and then Armstrong. They did it for all the Ph.D. graduates that day for the sciences. It is one of my most vivid and memorable life experiences. I think we spend about 3 seconds together, but I think about it a lot. I'm betting he said the same the the other doctoral students who walked that afternoon. No where near as awesome as your actual conversations with astronauts.
 
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As a former-kind-of-still-journalist, I've met a bunch of celebrity types.

Buzz Aldrin, back in the '80s, was very nice to me when I was a cub reporter.

The guys from Toto were nice, back in the late '80s after they had lost their major fame and were playing the state fair circuit.

Barack Obama and George W. Bush are both pretty charismatic in person. I didn't meet them, but I was close to them while they were giving speeches. Bush came off better in person than on TV.

Various other politicians. Mostly ok to me as a journalist.
 
Met Montel Williams at the Cincinnati airport when he was still relatively famous. Nice guy, tipped the barista very generously.

I met Pete Wentz half a dozen times. He was always super nice. Gave our band his contact info to send our demo to his record label.

The lead singer of All Time Low watched a concert with me and my friend in Columbus at "the basement". It was before they blew up back in the emo days. Super nice guy.

Saw Nick wheeler from All American Rejects backstage in Columbus. He was drinking whiskey and ignored everyone. He wasn't rude, just seemed like he was in a bad mood.
 
As a former-kind-of-still-journalist, I've met a bunch of celebrity types.

Buzz Aldrin, back in the '80s, was very nice to me when I was a cub reporter.

The guys from Toto were nice, back in the late '80s after they had lost their major fame and were playing the state fair circuit.

Barack Obama and George W. Bush are both pretty charismatic in person. I didn't meet them, but I was close to them while they were giving speeches. Bush came off better in person than on TV.

Various other politicians. Mostly ok to me as a journalist.

That reminded me of my encounter with Bob Dole. I was an IT consultant and a few of my clients were in DC. I left a client's site and was walking to the metro, when a black sedan pulled up and out of the back popped Bob Dole. This was the late 90s after he lost to Clinton and I guess he noticed me staring at him, so he walked over, shook my hand and said "Hi, I'm Bob Dole, nice to meet you."
 
No astronauts, not many sports guys either

A few musicians. I don't really count the guys at the TE camps since I paid to be there so naturally I would get to meet them.

Met Marky Ramone once, that was a pretty neat day. He was super nice
 
Nick Nolte and I stood in the lobby of the Montreal Ritz Carlton at the same time.
He did not appear to want to be spoken too. So, I didn’t.

I met astronaut Chris Hadfield. He gave me a joke that I could tell the grand kids.

The Woz was the keynote speaker at one of our corporate events. I nearly knocked him over when I turned around and he was standing right there talking to his assistant.

A bunch of Canadian musicians at meet and greets and/or merch tables.

Magicians: Matt Franco, Penn and Teller, Greg Frewin.

That’s all that come to mind.
 
I've been coincidentally near various movie-type celebrities while living in LA, but haven't met them. Except for Daryl Hannah and most of her extended family. We shared a hospital waiting room for almost a week.

I went to Greg Anderson's (southern lord/goatsnake/sunn 0))) birthday party and talked metal for a while with him. We bonded over a shared love of Karp.
 
Other than meet-n-greets at/after shows, the only famous people I've met were non-musicians. Ran into Hector 'Macho' Camacho at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and Lennox Lewis at the Sands? (Stardust? The one that was across the street from The Mirage & The Frontier). This was before Lennox Lewis won the heavyweight championship. He seemed very nice, gracious.

I could have met Kirk Gibson at the state capitol here in Michigan, I was taking a tour of the place, no one else on the tour but me, and he was sitting on a bench outside the Governors Office. I'm not an autograph seeker, and had no idea what to say to the guy, so I left him alone :embarrassed:
 
I've worked in venues for years, still do so I've met more people than I can remember. A few that stand out,

Emmylou Harris- You'd have a hard time finding a sweeter person.

B.B. King- Met him a couple of times. The last time he came out of the venue in a wheelchair after the show. He looked frail and exhausted but he met and signed for every single person who waited for him because he had too much respect for his fans to disappoint even one of them.

Buddy Guy- Met him in our hotel lobby at 3 am. Buddy was great, I was a babbling idiot.

Kathy Griffin- Very warm and nice. Very out of character. Asked about my night, asked for food recommendations.

Paul Molitor- My son's hero. Waited for him after a Brewers game. He was the last one out of the park. My son went up to him and told him he was his favorite and Molly sat there at midnight and talked to him for at least 10 minutes. He was everything my son thought he would be.

Chuck Berry- Wild ride down the interstate at 95 and a run through the airport carrying his Gibson.

A ton of others including classics Lillian Gish, Johnny Carson and Bob Hope.
 
oh! and I've had a couple of meals with alex honnold, but his "celebrity" is within a pretty small sphere
 
The crew of STS-39 (Michael Coats, Blaine Hammond, Greg Harbaugh, Don McMonagle, Guy Bluford, Lacy Veach, Rich Hieb). Mostly Veach, Hieb and Bluford since they were the mission specialists so we spent a lot of time training them to run the equipment on the spacecraft. We did a number of bbq's with the whole crew and senior scientists when they were in town though.

Bob Brozman lived in the next town over and I met him at local shows a couple of times. Played his old National once after a show.

Carlos Santana was sitting at a stop sign in Capitola one afternoon, just ignoring traffic and writing in a notebook. I pulled up next to him going the opposite direction and just said Hi Carlos. He looked up, clearly baked, said Hi and went back to writing in his book.
 
I've interacted with a handful of famous-ish people over the years, consistently the worst were politicians. No surprise there I guess.
 
I have a few. I have given a few celebs (names you would know) ski lessons, and/or skied with them. Two celebs with very different learning styles, goals and egos. Made for a challenging lesson. More details by PM if you want. But not publicly. I helped a famous director find his kid after ski lessons were done once. He looked like a bemused dad trying to figure out where to pick up his kid just like any one else. I have seen others around town. In SV, the culture is to leave them alone pretty much and let them have their day in the sun (valley). That attitude goes back to the old days.

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EDIT: Oh, and watched a very famous musician comfort his young son after he had broken his leg, and was awaiting transport at the lodge to the hospital. No matter what people may think of him otherwise, he was really nice and tender to his kid.
 
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I forgot to mention how often we would see Bill Clinton doing his morning jogs on Ft McNair when I was stationed in DC.

He'd usually wave or nod if he noticed you notice him. They never stopped though, Secret Service kept him moving along, but he'd at least acknowledge you.

So I really don't count it as"meeting".
 
I've met a few.

Mario Andretti
Robin Williams
Richard Gear

The most memorable was in NYC with Lawrence Taylor - We drank together and he said to his managers that I was the "only white boy that listened to him. Why couldn't they be like me?"
He was really cool and my most memorable as I felt part of the VIP of people with him.

My most cherished was with Mahammad Ali - Have his autograph and that man was just glowing with charisma. I was young at the time and was probably the first time I saw someone from TV actually in person. We shook hands and he took a knee to get down to my level when he signed his name for me.


I then was once on a plane from Chicago back to NY when this guy donning Jets logos on his stuff sat next to me. I asked him if he was a Jet's fan and he laughed and said sort of. He was on their payroll. Jokingly I asked if he was the guy who takes the tickets at the gate and amusingly he replied that he was their quarterback coach. I literally laughed at him stating that he was not old enough to be an NFL QB coach. He looked about 23. We talked about other things for the flight and when we departed we said our goodbyes.

After the flight I Googled "Jet's QB Coach" and indeed it was him.
 
I forgot to mention, I had drinks on several occasions with Randy Blythe back in the late 90s...way before Lamb of God hit it big.

Really nice, really smart, kinda edgy. Was obsessed with Danzig and we liked to tease him about it incessantly.
 
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