I was on the Today Show once. Post Office related.

Lets see as an LEO I did security at arenas. Worked backstage during an Eagles concert. We were advised that all of the Eagles hate cops and we weren't supposed to go back stage. We made sure we went back stage multiple times. Glen Frey said Hi and smiled every time he saw us back stage before the show.

In high school I delivered pizza to Michael Landon and Paul McCartney in Tucson at their homes. Both were very nice.

A buddy and I were rear ended by Thomas Haden Church On oracle road in Tucson. Minor damage and he was super cool despite the damage to the front of his vintage Mustang.

Made a skydive with Tom Cruise in Arizona. he was very nice. Ran into them(literally) a couple of years later while skiing in Flagstaff. My buddy crashed into Nicole on the mountain. Tom remembered me and recalled that I had "Taken mercy on him and made a jump with him in his fledgling skydiver days." Again both were very nice.

Spent the day with George bush and his secret service detail at a book signing post presidency. He was very nice and always stood up to meet veterans when they entered the room. he was only supposed to stay 2 hours. At the end of the two hours he asked me to go see the line of autograph seekers. I told him it was about 500 yards long and growing. He stayed until everyone got the autograph. He handed me a signed book at the end and shook my hand.

I attended a speech given by Adolph Gallant, and another by Admiral Grace Hopper. Both to small rooms.
Tom Hardy spent a lot of time shooting at my range while filming The Revenant here. He is quite the gun guy and pretty down to earth. In fact I never recognized him until one of the younger staff drew my attention to his movie roles.

My most recent brush was standing next to Kimberly Guilfoyle as I made tea in the NRA hospitality suite at 2019 Dallas Safari Clubs Annual convention.

One of the most meaningful brushes was when I as a teenager was introduced by my dad to Sgt. Roy Benavides. He gave me a signed business card. As Houston area Hispanic Vietnam vets my dad and he would always talk at the various veterans events they would have in the 80's.

HK Ag

When I was learning to fly back in the 1990s, I went to a meeting put on by the FAA FSDO (Flight Standards District Offices) featuring Al Haynes as a speaker.

He was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 232 which crashed in Sioux City after a major engine and flight controls failure.

I seem to recall he was really down to earth and a genuinely decent guy.

It was amazing there were any survivors at all in that incident.

I have participated in a thread like this before. The other times I recall the stipulation was "famous".

Greatness is a different thing. I have two.

My grandmother's third husband (The one she did not out live) was a member of the Flying Tigers. I can listen to his stories forever. One of his "real" grand children have chronicled his stories. She is quite the archivist.

I also met Arnold Palmer while playing Bay Hill once.

quote:

Originally posted by Patrick-SP2022:
When I was learning to fly back in the 1990s, I went to a meeting put on by the FAA FSDO (Flight Standards District Offices) featuring Al Haynes as a speaker.

He was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 232 which crashed in Sioux City after a major engine and flight controls failure.

I seem to recall he was really down to earth and a genuinely decent guy.

It was amazing there were any survivors at all in that incident.

Run into Denny Fitch as well?

When I lived in NYC, I was a member of a fancy sporting club (aka gym), and regularly played pick-up basketball games with Adam Sandler, Damon Wayans, Carson Daly, P. Diddy (Puff Daddy back then), Taye Diggs and Linda Fiorentino. George Stephanopolous, Kira Sedgewick and a whole bunch of top-tier models were also regulars at the club.

Also, I was good friends with Michael Dell's brother for a time and had a few dinners and other encounters with the billionaire computer mogul.

My brush with entertainers-

I was at a boring opening party and standing bored near a service door, another guy with a beer stood next me and introduced himself as "Marty" Sheen. We talked for maybe 30-60 seconds, then he walked away.

Jello Biafra (The Dead Kennedys) ate a slice next to me at a standing only pizza joint. We talked about bicycles.

Andy Partridge (XTC) at a Tower Record appearance, talked to him for a couple of minutes on the then new Unplugged concept on MTV (he said he invented it).

Had a guy drop by a place I briefly worked at. He wore a beenie in the middle of summer. Wanted some information on his film projection system, we talked for 30 minutes. Never heard of him, but he was Gibby Haynes from The Butthole Surfers. Interesting guy.

Exchanged hellos with Mike Patton (Faith No More), Sammy Hagar, Tommy Stinson, Peter Buck, Pete Rose, Morgan Freeman.

I was by myself at night in a Four Seasons loading dock loading a work van with hi-res computer equipment, security had me stop and sit on my rear bumper. Mick Jagger then walked right by me, not looking at or saying a word to me, a Lincoln Town car drove up to pick him up.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I went to high school with one of the 3 scientists who came up with the Quark Theory of Matter, which is still in use. His name is George Zweig.

My only brush with "greatness"-

I have met a mentor of the guy you referenced, Richard Feynman. Went to elementary school with his son. Feynman would show up at class assemblies playing bongo drums. Been to their house several times. Also knew the son of Murray Gell Mann, the other Quark guy. Never met the dad.

During the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, my family was on a ski vacation at Killington Ski Area in VT.

Unbeknownst to us at the time, until they showed up, the US Alpine Ski Team was running slalom gates on the Outer Limits trail at the ‘Big-K’!

They were all there - the Mahre brother’s, Phil and Steve, Bill Taylor, Cindy Nelson, Christin Cooper, Tamara McKinney and some other’s.

The top of their course started about 1/3 of the way down the trail, and because only the race course portion was closed off, the member’s of the USA Olympic Ski team were mingling with us mere mortals skiing the infamous moguls on Outer Limits.

It was an incredible experience and quite humbling to have my proverbial ‘doors blown off’ by the true master’s of the sport at the time (and I considered myself to be pretty quick and competent skier).

They were all very personable and talkative at the top of the run and in the lift-line, but they rode the chairlift with themselves.

It was truly a great experience for the two or three days that they came to Killington to train!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Cookster,

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Run into Denny Fitch as well?

I don't think he was there.
This is going back close to 30 years now and I have not thought it about in a long time.

I saw Billy Ray Cyrus at a gas station once.

For a number of years, my next door neighbor was Charles Rhodes. He drew ALL of the Sad Sack cartoons for the newspapers back in the day. A very nice man, and a good neighbor. He had a lot of talent.

I haven't met many famous people, but I have met:

Robin Williams...really nice guy

Ronnie James Dio(a few hours before I saw DIO back in 1985). He was just hanging out with a body guard at the Maine mall in Portland. A few members of Rough Cutt(opening band) were with him too. I got his autograph. I was literally speechless. RJD was really nice.

I went onto a plane and saw Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, another one with Pete Sampras.

Stallone walked right past me at the airport when I was working there in grad school.

military related:

David Petraeus was my Regimental Commander in the 82nd. Met with him numerous times, attended briefings, training etc. Years before his eventual downfall.

Danny McKnight was my Battalion Commander in the 25th ID. He was later the actual Ranger battalion commander in Somalia of the epic Blackhawk Down event. His role was played by Tom Sizemore in the movie.

Both were solid respected officers when I knew them (although both a bit aloof / uptight IMO).

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1. When I was a kid, my father took me to see the Harlem Globetrotters play in Daytona Beach, FL. During a time out or half time or something, Meadowlark Lemmon and Curly Neill came out into the audience to have fun with the crowd. My dad was sitting on an aisle seat, and so Curly came up to my dad and rubbed my dad's bald head and yelled something over to Meadowlark about him being his twin or something (wish I could recall what he said...) For you young guys, "Curly" Neill was totally bald.
2. In high school, I was a yearbook photographer, and Fran Tarkenton came to our school to film a commercial for an insurance company on our football field, so I got to take pictures of him for the yearbook. Seemed like a nice guy.
3. One of my Wing Commanders in the Air Force was GEN Lloyd "Fig" Newton, the first African-American Thunderbird pilot. The Thunderbirds are the Air Force Aerial Demonstration Team -- the best of the best. When he was my Wing Commander he was a Colonel, but eventually retired with 4 stars. Very nice guy and a great speaker.
4. I got to shake hands with President George W. Bush during a visit to DMAFB.
5. As a young stringer photographer for UPI in the early '80's I got to photograph races at Daytona; I was picked to photograph President Ronald Reagan's arrival at Daytona International Airport for the Daytona 500 (IIRC Richard Petty won the race). I believe President Reagan had started the race via radio from Air Force One.
6. I was very close with my father; he was the greatest man I have ever known. (The best kind of "greatness"). As an elementary school principal, he was adored by thousands of elementary school children over the years. He was an Air Force veteran. He was the best extemporaneous speaker I've ever seen. He could get up in front of a PTA meeting with a single note card with about 4 short notes scribbled on it, and speak eloquently for an hour or more and sound as though he'd rehearsed it for days.

quote:

I saw Billy Ray Cyrus at a gas station once.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Was he rocking his mullet?? My daughters met Minnie Pearl at the Baskin Robbins in Nashville.
Later in life she met Kenny Rogers.

I was attending a talk in a hotel conference room. During a break, I went out into the central lobby, and wandered into a small side room with display tables, etc. just to see what that was about. It was the reunion of the Tuskegee Airmen - it was humbling to meet those guys.

When I was in high school I was at a modeling convention that had Bud Mahurin as a guest speaker. He had some amazing stories, especially some from his friend Adolf Galland (who has been mentioned in this thread already) and Eric Hartmann. He said Hartmann told him that "Russian pilots flew like they were the first man on Earth."

Got to shake Tex Johnston's hand at a Boeing event.

A friend of mine recorded Ike Turner's last work before he died. He won a Grammy for it. He also was the drummer for the band Rock Sugar that opened for Queensryche at the Colorado State Fair a few years back. That didn't go any farther after that point. His brother another friend was Ray Romano's stand in for Everybody Loves Raymond for the entire duration of that show.

My dad had dinner with President Kennedy in the white house when he was 10 years old, followed by a tour of DC by then secretary of state Dean Rusk.

I met Mother Theresa once. She gave a speech at the college a girl I was dating was attending. Mount St. Marys in western MD...was a pretty moving experience.