[quote]Based on the fact I don't recognize 90% of the names you all mentioned, I could have then bump into me on the street and not be any wiser

You sound like a typical Midwesterner. Come on, make something up. Roger Ebert went to the University of Illinois. If you have ever been to Las Vegas, these types are always around. They even hire the brothers of famous people.

Michael Martin Murphy about 20 years ago.

Probably Markie Post was first. Also spent a couple days around David Nelson about a month after Rick was killed in the plane crash. Anthony Newley, Ed McMahon, and one or two of you might remember David Horowitz, who used to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and had a program of his own where he tested products against their advertising claims (the one I most remember is where they shot a Master padlock with a rifle).

First local celebrity was probably Bob Lobertini, a Nashville weatherman at WLAC-TV. He also hosted the Popeye show as "Captain Bob". My mom had a picture of me with "Captain Bob" when I was about 3.

As for other celebrities, I've met quite a few over the years. I played in some pick-up basketball games with Chuck Person when I was at Auburn. Also sat a row over from Bo Jackson in a class (Bo knows Geography!).
Running a retail business in midtown Nashville for over thirty years (3 blocks from Music Row), we've had a number of Country Music people in our store. Met a few Titans players in the grocery store of all places (including Eddie George, and the late Steve McNair).
Darrell Waltrip (Nascar) & his wife have shopped in our store a few times over the last couple years during the Christmas season.

I met John Wayne at his house in Laguna when we were installing a new electric meter on his house. I was a groundman with Southern California Edison. He was very casual and gracious in his demeanor. IIRC it was in 1966.

I also met Nolan, at a party probably 25 yrs ago. A woman I was dating got invited to a party at Nolan's lawyer's house. Seemed like genuinely nice guy.

I also met Bob Graham when he was governor of Florida.

I met James Drury of the Virginian when I was selling flowers at an open air flower market in Houston when I was in school. I said "you look just like the actor James Drury" and it was. Real nice guy. We talked for several minutes, he told me about a couple episodes of the "Kung Fu"reboot he had just finished filming.

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Originally posted by GJG:

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Originally posted by T-Boy:
Who was the first real "celebrity" you have met in person?

For me it was Johnny Weismueller, Olympic Gold Metalist swimmer (5 gold metals) and Tarzan movie star. I was about 5 or 6 years old and he autographed a photo I still have.

Nolan Ryan brought a family member in with an eye injury years ago.

Chuck Yeager.

Bill Cosby in the early 60s.
He was performing stand up comedy at a club in Greenwich Village, NYC.
My date and I had a ringside table.
Wearing a vertically striped black and white shirt, he made me the butt of several referee jokes.
We had a good time.

George Romney while he was Governor of Michigan, 1963.
Worked for Roger Penske in the 1970's. First day on the job he came back to my department specifically to meet and welcome me to the company. And as a plus he always greeted me by name.
Met Bobby Allison at Penske Chevrolet. I missed meeting Mark Donohue one day, I was off to lunch when he came through. He autographed photos for a few people. This was a couple of weeks before his fatal accident.
Several Detroit TV news personalities, most notable Sonny Elliott.
Pontiac enthusiasts will remember Mac McKellar, Milt Schornack, Jim Wangers, Howard Masales, Arnie Beswick, met all of them too. I have a diecast of Arnie's "Tameless Tiger" that the box and car is autographed.
Met Linda Vaughn also.
Spyder Turner of Motown fame. Jerry Plunk of the Flaming Ember (Westbound Number 9), Johnathan Round, Detroit area artist, Bob Seger during the Bob Seger System days.

Those and a $1.12 gets me a coffee at McDonalds in the morning.............

Early 1960s:

Don Meredith
Micky Mantle

When I was little, I yelled and waved at Cadet Don at his house while growing up in Houston. He was a morning kids show celebrity in Houston back in the day, and he waved back and smiled at me while working on his Mustang.

Houston sports stars substituted my classes like Billie "White Shoes" Johnson and Carl Mauck of the Oilers and Joe Morgan of the Astros. There were more but I can't remember them all.

I met Charlton Heston at a radio station I worked at in high school. I sat next to him at the movie he was promoting at the time.

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Originally posted by 4x5:

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Originally posted by darthfuster:
I worked with Gordon Jump when I was a child.

Were you on WKRP?

Long before that I'm afraid. Gordon was a fairly young man back then. I was an up and comer. Seems I was on the threshold and my mom decided that life was not best for me. Last thing I did was a Christmas special with Cissy from A Family Affair. That was a looooong time ago.

The first, Bill Buckner of the 1986 World Series fame. Had a place here in Boise, and still has a baseball clinic for youth every year. I don't remember how old I was. I met Tim Reynolds, who used to play with Dave Matthews band in college, he came to campus and hung out after his show. The late Boyd Coddington, my uncle(Charley Hutton) used to paint and do body work on cars for him. And was on the tv show. Same way I met Chip Foose, who my uncle still works with on projects. Bruce Willis in Hailey playing with his band one summer, drank beer and he bummed my lighter, used to smoke Marlboro reds, we talked for a couple beers in between sets. Didn't even realize who he was for like 10 minutes. Super cool guy too. Ran into him like 7 weeks later at a restaurant and he came by my table to say hi and asked me what I recommended to eat. There are lots of celebrities in Sun Valley, they, like most Idahoans just want to be left alone, which used to happen for the most part.

Met Deion Sanders when we lived in Texas, my nephew went to elementary school with one of his kids and they played baseball on the same team. Also met Jewell & Ty Murray in Dallas after a PBR event, my sister-in-law went to school with Michael Gaffney's wife Robin, who introduced us. Ty is a jerk, Jewell was very polite. Dennis Franz up at the Albertsons in Hayden,ID. My brother in law was the store director.

One of my roommates in college was George Karl's nephew, met him and Ray Allen in McCall. Met country singer Justin Moore at Cabelas in Boise, he was there promoting store his concert that night, we talked hunting and fishing for a while, cool dude, short though. And my favorite celebrity was Eric Clapton. He's friends with my old high school principal and we ran into them out fly fishing, they were in one of our little honey holes about 2 hours outside of Boise. We went further upstream and didn't catch a damn thing worth keeping the rest of the day

First one was Ernie Shavers. He was a boxer and the first person to ever knock Larry Holmes down.
All of the "celebrities" I've met have been boxers. Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini used to see around the Warren/Youngstown area. Mike Tyson had a house close by and I used to see him frequently out and talked to him too.

Darth Vader.

Probably not the 'real one', but it seemed real enough to me at the time.

Also forgot to name a couple of sports figures. Both Detroit Lions. Larry Hand, was a customer at a gas station I worked at in 1968 and Charlie Sanders in 1977.

Charlie was selling cars for Penske Chevrolet in the off season, learning the business. Later he went into a dealer training program. He offered me a manager position when he got his dealership. I left there before he completed his training to move out west and take a manager position at another dealership. For whatever reason Charlie left the program and instead went into restaurant franchises.

Val Kilmer.

He lives/lived in Santa Fe and had an event at the college I was working at.

I also met and got drunk with the blind guy who climbed Mt everest, his guide was from my hometown,

I haven't met many...

Probably the most memorable was former Cardinals/Pirates player Andy Van Slyke...

I umpired his kid's baseball game a few years in a row.

His family was living in the area and his kid played ball here (Scott Van Slyke, who also plays or played pro ball, who played for the Dodgers recently, although not sure where he is now, last I think with the Reds)

He complimented both me, my brother, and our best friend at the time on our Umpiring. We asked him to sign a baseball for us, and I gave my baseball to my dad for a Father's day present.)

The next year I asked him to sign another ball for me, which i still have.

He was a pretty down to earth guy and signed a lot of baseballs while still watching his son play ball. I kind of felt bad asking him as he was just trying to watch his kid play ball, and not even coaching or anything... But how many times to you get a shot to meet and get an autograph from a major league ballplayer.

Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull) at a book-signing. Perhaps oddly, I have never seen the movie.

First I can remember was the actor Horace McMahon from "Naked City". We were in Chicago, about 1961 or '62, eating breakfast, and my dad saw him and waved at him. He and my dad knew each other and he came and sat at our table and talked with us for a while. I have no idea how my dad met him. Second one was "Goulardi" out of Cleveland, shortly before him getting taken off the air for blowing up the rat or whatever it was. Next one, other than local newscasters, etc, was I literally walked into Nelson Rockefeller about 1966 at a hotel in Chicago.

Next were a lot of drag racers that are mostly gone now, but some are still around, Don "The Snake Prudhomme, Tom "Mongoose" McEwen, Shirley Muldowney, Raymond Beadle, Richard Tharp, Don Garlits, Dale Armstrong, Kenny Bernstein, Jerry "The King" Ruth, etc. I got to be pretty friendly with the announcer on many drag racing shows, Steve Evans, too.

I moved to Vegas in the middle '70's and met a lot of celebrities:

Don Rickles
Buddy Hackett
Foster Brooks (many times, he lived close by)
Jerry Vale
Harry Guardino
Loretta Lynn and her husband
Tony "The Ant" Spilotro was my neighbor, our dogs played together.
Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. Lived across the street from my mother.
Simon Oakland (5 or 6 times)
John Mitchum
Charlie Callas
Jim Brown
June Lockhart
Greg Morris
Robert Urich
Phyllis Davis
Bart Braverman
Mark Goddard.

Saw many more, including Johnny Carson, but I actually spoke to the ones above.