Biggest "celebrity" you've seen/met?

[Kaylyn]

Update for me: I'm at a convention this weekend and just met Steve Blum (voice actor who has been in pretty much everything ever) and fangirled quite a bit more than I expected to, especially when he did a couple of my favorite voices while signing some photos for me.

[Silent-Hunter]

I emailed the founder of Pixar asking a few things. He's nice. I've also met Joan Rivers.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

As a young teenager I meet:

Raymond Beetle
Shirley Maldowney
Don Garlits
Don Purdomme

While in High School

Mary Lou Retton

As an adult:

Jessie James Dupree of Jackyl and
Mark Slaughter.

I also know Travis Flores, and Scarlett Shepard, up and coming talent that are friends with my girls

[wolfie]

As a young teenager I meet:

Raymond Beetle
Shirley Maldowney
Don Garlits
Don Purdomme

I guess you were a fan of auto racing at the time. Ironic that in a male-dominated sport, Shirley was the only one I recognized.

[Ironclad Alibi]

When she was a child, Mrs. IA lived on the same street as Blaze Starr. She would see her walking to the bus stop to ride downtown to work. Mrs. IA met her years later at a jewelry show and told her about living on the same street and seeing her walk to the bus stop.

[silverstaff]

Well, it wasn't face-to-face, but while working at a call center I had to call and talk to Richard Dean Anderson once.

He wanted to cancel his cell phone account. His agent had written us a letter requesting it be cancelled. Unfortunately, the Terms of Service require the customer to verbally request cancellation to us on the phone, and only the "Retention" department could process that, so I'd have to call him and transfer the call to them to get him cancelled.

I got Mr. Anderson on the line, after I introduced myself and told him why I was calling, he refused to talk to me, only dismissively saying to talk to his agent and he hung up.

. . .without providing any contact information for his agent. The letter had Mr. Anderson's information in the contact fields for it. As a random call center worker, I had no ability to look up what theatrical agent represents somebody, and even if I did, if his agent didn't have a signed Power of Attorney that was valid for purposes of things like phone accounts it wouldn't have done any good.

I closed the ticket as "Customer did not wish to proceed with cancellation of account" since he refused to talk to our "Retention" department or discuss the cancellation request with us.

[mjr]

I guess you were a fan of auto racing at the time. Ironic that in a male-dominated sport, Shirley was the only one I recognized.

Shirley Muldowney and that pink dragster...

Does Bjarne Stroustrup (creator of C++) count as a "celebrity"? I emailed him a few times...does that count??

[silverstaff]

Also, if you count people I met in the autograph line at conventions and book signings. . .

George Takei (back in the '90's, before he was a social media darling). His speech to the convention was talking about the Star Trek exhibit at the Smithsonian that had just opened the year before. . .and the item I'd brought for him to autograph was a spare ticket to that exhibit. I'd gone to the exhibit at the Smithsonian a few months prior and had ended up with a spare ticket. Even 20+ years later, I remember that he really lit up to see that in the autograph queue. He was just as outgoing and friendly then as his social media persona is now, I don't think it's an act.

Walter Koenig. . .seemed rather distant and aloof, formal and businesslike. Really wasn't engaging with fans, sign it and move on. Didn't say a word to anyone as the line chugged along.

Mark Lenard. Very nice, friendly, sweet old man. The line moved slow because he wanted to take a few moments to chat with every person in line. I think he would have sat there all day and just had a friendly chat with everyone if he could.

James Doohan. When I got to him in line, he was discussing something else with the convention staff and was quite distracted. I always heard he was a nice guy, but he barely acknowledged me since his attention was elsewhere.

Terry Brooks. Nice guy, friendly. Seemed to really like the fans.

Mary McDonnell. Friendly, nice. Seemed rather overwhelmed by the entire "convention" atmosphere, it was rather clear she wasn't used to Geek culture and was out of her element, but she was clearly trying to take it all in stride.

[drjonah]

When I used to live in cheese-land I worked at a mom and pop pharmacy and had a lot of local celebrities as customers and one Hollywood. Some of our customers were

Jim Irwin - voice of the Green Bay Packers for 30 years
Moses Malone - NBA hall of famer
Kristen Johnston - 3rd Rock from the Sun
Lloyd & Jane Pettit - very wealthy philanthropists

My sister once almost got trampled by Paul Molitor (MLB hall of famer)

My family got to hang out with Al Jarreau after a concert. But really the only reason he hung out with us is because we were with my dad's coworker who is a childhood friend of Al.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Growing up my Dad would take us to the Springnationals every year. The year I turned 14 he let me get a pit pass with him. I was there when ChaCha won her first title.

Also I have meet Bob Golic and Tom Vardell of the Cleveland Browns

[Silent-Hunter]

Does Bjarne Stroustrup (creator of C++) count as a "celebrity"? I emailed him a few times...does that count??

I should think so!

[Quitbuggingmeandgoaway]

Having grown up in Pittsburgh, here's some of the Pittsburgh Penguins I met (as a child):
* Phil Bourque - have a pic with him
* Tom Barrasso (rude to me - had to beg my mom not to yell at him)
* Mario Lemieux - quick but nice
* Rick Kehoe (longtime assistant coach for the Penguins) - nicest guy who sat with my mom and I after I followed him into a store at the mall
* Randy Hillier (saw him at an ice rink)
* Jim Paek (super-nice)
* Shawn McEachern (very nice)

In college, Larry Fitzgerald sat next to me in a computer lab but was gone in a few minutes. Very nice guy. Tutored Scott McKillop (former 49er) and he was nice. Remembered me years later when he became a big name at Pitt.

Met Weird Al after a concert - very nice guy

Waited on Stu Brown (WPXI) and Alby Oxenreiter (WPGH). Both were kind of guarded but friendly.

Now I live in Middle-of-Nowhere Virginia, so I don't get many encounters. Heard that Ron Francis was vacationing at the Outer Banks while I was there though - would love to meet him.

[Velfarre2001]

Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne came to shop at my store once, I didn't end up helping them though. Co-worker buying stuff said Chad was a nice guy and even let him go first since he had less stuff. He said he got a skeezy vibe from Avril though.

[Kheldarson]

Got to meet Larry Elmore at last year's Charcon.

And Neil Gaiman is coming to our city&rsquo;s book festival this year!! <3 <3 <3

[Crossbow]

Got to meet Larry Elmore at last year's Charcon.

And Neil Gaiman is coming to our city&rsquo;s book festival this year!! <3 <3 <3

Larry's really cool. Run enough scifi con art shows, and you'll get to know him.

As for Neil Gaiman, I was at his Q&A session last night. Incredibly personalbe and smart. Too many people attneding to do a signing after, so he pre-signed a number of books. I'm cool with that. He even answered Mrs. Crossbow's question.

On the way out, however, we got to prove that Timing (really) Is Everything:




He caught the elevator down with us!