I had this idea put in my head by the game 'back to bacon' or whatever its called - the idea being you can link to anyone in the world through seven people.
So - who's the most famous person/people you've met? I'm curious to see how far Dakka has spread.
I've met Tony Wright from Terrorvision (that was a big deal...but maybe only if you're me) I shook hands with Princess Diana Gigged with Spunge And at uni - I met Jim Bowens neice
I met Mr Sulu backstage at a panto - he gave me a VHS copy of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As part of that, I was invited onstage where i hid under the tallest man in the UK's (Christopher Greener) robe, ran on and hit Keith Chegwin on the head with a plastic mallet.
I have also met Cannon & Ball at another panto, as well as Ozzy Osbourne and Jonathan King at a concert in my youth (Jonathan King used to be Ozzy's agent or promoter or something, I believe).
I met Mr Sulu backstage at a panto - he gave me a VHS copy of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As part of that, I was invited onstage where i hid under the tallest man in the UK's (Christopher Greener) robe, ran on and hit Keith Chegwin on the head with a plastic mallet.
I have also met Cannon & Ball at another panto, as well as Ozzy Osbourne and Jonathan King at a concert in my youth (Jonathan King used to be Ozzy's agent or promoter or something, I believe).
Any excuse for a surprise assault on Keith Chegwin
Another one - I forgot I met Larry Hama.
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reds8n wrote: Toss up between 3 Arch bishops of Canterbury, Ex- Prime Minister John Major... or Axl Rose.
Guns n Roses were touring in the UK, a friend was connected with one of the venues they were playing at. He scored us tickets and .. well.. not quite back stage passes but early admittance.
I played it cool and just went " ddduurrrhhh .... errmm hello ... errr... umm .. errrrr "
I was nowt but a bairn though really. Still at school.
reds8n wrote: Guns n Roses were touring in the UK, a friend was connected with one of the venues they were playing at. He scored us tickets and .. well.. not quite back stage passes but early admittance.
I played it cool and just went " ddduurrrhhh .... errmm hello ... errr... umm .. errrrr "
I was nowt but a bairn though really. Still at school.
I did the same when I met the singer from terrorvision. I was so conscious not to gush - that band was the reason I started playing guitar - that I didn't say a word after hello...
I met Wil Wheaton and gave him my lucky PC killing D20...
I've also met the Walter Emanuel Jones (Black Power Ranger), Drew Carey, and went to high school with Alex Boone (Offensive Tackle/Guard for the San Fransisco 49ers), and Haruki Nakamura (Safety for the Baltimore Ravens and Carolina Panthers)
I've met all of the major cast from the old Scottish comedy show Chewin' the Fat (and had dinner with three of them). ...Which isn't much of a challenge considering most of them live within a few miles of me... However as most of the "celebrities" I've met probably aren't known outside of Scotland, and again live in the same city of me, I doubt any of them count for non Scots. =/
I've shaken hands with the Arch Bishop of York (John Sentamu) - but not by choice...
The only other famous ( or at least well known) person I've been near, and will always regret I never had the courage to speak to was Simon Weston - truly amazing man, and seemed like a nice bloke.
I've gotten pissed with Jason Leonard and Martin Johnson (Jeremy Guscott , Lawrence Dallaglio and Sir Clive Woodward were also there). Leono was a good laugh and tried to get me to use his company to staff my sites, Johno was right grumpy as his Mrs was coming to pick him up and he couldn't get steaming drunk like everyone else.
I used to live in Belsize Park which has allot of Celebs living there. John (the barman from TFI Friday) was Landlord of our local and you would frequently see Chris Evans, Ewan McGregor (pre-starwars) and other in there (Tavistock Arms). Once I stumbled round to the pisser once and this huge bloke was in the way (one of the few I met bigger than me), I push round him and some little bloke the other side apologised for getting in the way - it was Noel Gallagher. I let him of just that once!
Best one was seeing Jeremy Beadle on Oxford Street. "Give us a wave" we said, the miserable fether was not impressed.
My grandfather built Steven Spielberg's house, drank coffee with the real life version of Captain Quint from Jaws, and listened to Shatner make an ass out of himself every morning while sharing said cup with "Quint". My grandfather lives on Long Island, if it wasn't realized. The only 'relations' I've had with famous people were dating the late James Gandolfini's niece, meeting the country singer Phil Vasser, and that William Wallace (Braveheart) is my ancestor. Turns out, I guess that's not too shabby. Lol
timetowaste85 wrote: ....William Wallace (Braveheart) is my ancestor. Turns out, I guess that's not too shabby. Lol
Not to piss on your bonfire but mathematically speaking, you can choose pretty much any historical figure from a certain era and you are related in some way - depending on how far back you go:
Mathematically speaking, everyone in Europe is related to Charlemagne. This is because everyone has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so on. By the time you get to the 13th century, you have more direct ancestors than have ever been human beings - about 80 billion. Therefore you must have shared ancestors. In 1995, a man called Mark Humphries at Dublin University discovered this information. He discovered his was wife was King Edward III's great-granddaughter 20 generations down the line. After closer examination, he discovered his wife was also related to Hermann Goring. He then managed to calculate the mathematics of the information.
Met Mel Gibson at Planet Hollywood, he was very short (well comparatively).. and it was hard to see him in the same light in future movies as this wasn't too long after Braveheart, and in his movies they do a good job of making him look taller lol..
I also sat with Kathleen Madigan at the restaurant attached to the club she was at the night before I left for the Navy, this was before she became a little more "well known" after being a contestant on Last Comic Standing. She liked me because I was a strapping 6'4" hunk-o-man according to her lol (she is 5'1" btw). She ate with me and my folks and is an all around awesome person.
I met Warren Moon (recently departed Houston Oilers QB at the time) when I was out for dinner with my parents at Mortons Steakhouse. He signed a napkin for me as he was leaving I caught him on the way out.
timetowaste85 wrote: ....William Wallace (Braveheart) is my ancestor. Turns out, I guess that's not too shabby. Lol
Not to piss on your bonfire but mathematically speaking, you can choose pretty much any historical figure from a certain era and you are related in some way - depending on how far back you go:
Mathematically speaking, everyone in Europe is related to Charlemagne. This is because everyone has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so on. By the time you get to the 13th century, you have more direct ancestors than have ever been human beings - about 80 billion. Therefore you must have shared ancestors. In 1995, a man called Mark Humphries at Dublin University discovered this information. He discovered his was wife was King Edward III's great-granddaughter 20 generations down the line. After closer examination, he discovered his wife was also related to Hermann Goring. He then managed to calculate the mathematics of the information.
Well, seeing how the Wallace Lineage was a direct line and my grandmother is a Wallace...my line to him is pretty much straight. I realize "everyone is related to everyone", but I have a direct line.
timetowaste85 wrote: ....William Wallace (Braveheart) is my ancestor. Turns out, I guess that's not too shabby. Lol
Not to piss on your bonfire but mathematically speaking, you can choose pretty much any historical figure from a certain era and you are related in some way - depending on how far back you go:
Mathematically speaking, everyone in Europe is related to Charlemagne. This is because everyone has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents and so on. By the time you get to the 13th century, you have more direct ancestors than have ever been human beings - about 80 billion. Therefore you must have shared ancestors. In 1995, a man called Mark Humphries at Dublin University discovered this information. He discovered his was wife was King Edward III's great-granddaughter 20 generations down the line. After closer examination, he discovered his wife was also related to Hermann Goring. He then managed to calculate the mathematics of the information.
Though i didn't really "meet" him, I made Michael Jackson walk around me at the Forum Shops in Caeser's Palace in Las Vegas.
Outside of that, I've mainly just met a bunch of [American] football players and a bunch of bands.
OH YEAH! I forgot I met "The Hedgehog" himself (Ron Jeremy) at an event he did in Silverdale WA, he was signing some movies or something but at the time I was a Submariner on the USS Ohio and he signed a picture of himself that stated:
"I like to go deeper too!" ~Ron Jeremy
I hung (hurr hurr) it up in the radio room and wouldn't be surprised if it was still there lol.
He was also a really nice guy who was very down to earth (in more ways than one)
I've met Richard Dean Anderson before and regularly saw/said hello to John Travolta before his son died.
Travolta was a well-known individual at the Outer Banks who was as friendly as you'd ever meet, so long as you did not gush over his movies or interrupt him when he was spending time with his family.
I suppose the most famous person I ever met was the late Robert Bork, with whom I very (very, very) briefly debated the death penalty in a law school seminar.
Clinton at Pope AFB when he was POTUS.
2009 AVN Awards in Los Vegas Original members from Blackhawk Down
Colin Powell
Toby Keith
Luke Bryan
Robin Williams
Kid Rock
I met, and hung out with, John C. Reilly. He was touring with a bunch of folk musicians, because he plays folk music, and had invited a friend of my wife's along on tour. They made a stop near my home, my wife and I went and saw them and we hung out afterwards at their hotel drinking beers and playing music. On tour with John; Becky Stark, Tom Brosseau, (formerly of the Old Crow Medicine Show) Willie Watson, Dan Bern (wrote the songs for Walk Hard), and Andru Bemis (our friend).
Jason Webley. My wife and I share a lot of the same friends and we all get lunch when he is in town. He also offciated the suprise, in the park, wedding between Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.
Neil Gaiman signed a copy of a Hellraiser comic I own, he contributed a story in it.
I was there when my wife checked in Anthony Keidis (Red Hot Chili Peppers) to the hotel she was working at at the time...he is really greasy looking.
I also met and briefly chatted up Curtis Sliwa at the Cique de Soleil when they were in Manhattan in the 90s, Judy Blume at the book convention I was working, and went to high school and had many classes with the journalist Libby Copeland. That's it, pretty underwhelming, none since I moved to the midwest.
I got to meet the members of 311 a long time ago at a concert. They were just walking around the venue, and me and my friends recognized them. Really nice guys, fun to joke around with.
I also got to meet George Lowe...well, via telephone. A good friend co-owns an advertising company, and was working with him for some kind of commercial. Well, he accidentally called him when trying to play a voicemail for myself and a friend that Lowe left on his phone. After hanging up, Lowe called him back, and we basically had a 20 minutes conversation with him. Really, really funny guy, and one of the coolest moments of my life for sure.
My history teacher almost ran over Prince Harry with her car. He was jaywalking
Speaking of killing/nearly killing famous people...my biology teacher was a descendent of Robert DeBruce, the guy who betrayed Wallace. That led to an interesting discussion in class. It got even funnier when a girl in my class could trace her lineage to Abe Lincoln and our history teacher was related to John Wilks Booth! I suggested a royal rumble for family honor and all that, but the teachers voted it down. Good thing too, the bio teacher was built like a Mack truck.
While not exactly 'met them' for obvious reasons, I am directly related to these morons: http://www.portifex.com/Dates/Archive/pazzi.htm Also, if you've played Assassin's Creed II, you've had the enjoyment of killing my noble ancestors...
We also at one point in time decided to try and kill the Pope because he was Spanish, but the Spanish army somewhat disagreed with our plans.
If I only knew how to link a picture of Horatio Cain and his sunglasses...
That is the Dr. I was thinking of when I read your post... I took it as there was another significant Dr. Dre around.
Edit: And the 2 pictures that pretre linked I can only see the bottom one, the Dre that I am thinking of, the other Dre is a square box with an X in the middle lol
Well the names are so big or important now, but my great great uncle ran for president a few times and helped create the U.N.
At his funeral I got to meet a bunch of various heads of state, but it was a long time ago and names escape me.
Last summer though I did almost get jumped for almost bumping into Napolitano at a concentration camp in Germany. Not my fault she decided that she was more important than people already going through a small doorway.
Stephen King was my nephew's little league coach back in the day ans is a pretty common sight to see walking around Bangor.
Tracy Hickman was a fixture at my LFGS back in the early 80's and would run campaigns for us. He'd be telling me about books he was working on with myself little realizing how big they'd become. Heck of a nice guy.
Having been a concert promoter for a decade, I met all kinds of people, from local and regional nobody you ever heard of to Johnny Cash, his lovely wife June Carter, Robert Smith and the rest of The Cure.
Was once flagged down in downtown Eugene by Rodney Dangerfield looking for directions to a restaurant.
Also just about literally bumped into actor Sam Elliot as I was leaving the local Walmart. He really is that tall.
And met Rip Torn much the same way, while passing each other in a different local Walmart parking lot.
Oh and how could I forget, I met Rush Limbaugh in the St. Louis airport in 1995 before he stopped flying commercial.
*Talked to King of Sweden and had no idea who he was at the time (that was a fun reveal to see him on stage later)
*Got to hang out with the Blue man group.
*Accidentally barged into Peter's dressing room (of Peter Paul and Mary) while he was practicing. Really cool guy.
*Became good friends with Accept's bassist and his son when I toured Berklee Music college.
*countless smaller blues/bluegrass/rockabilly/country acts through woodsongs over the past few years. Mumford and Sons, Guitar Shorty, Willie Nelson's son, etc.
I need some more cool stories. I'm usually working while other people sneak off to have the cool adventures. I will never forgive myself for missing a chance to meet Mike Rowe.
I asked my wife last night - She's met Frank Bruno. In a pub in blackpool.
One of my mates -
He met Westlife - he booked them into the hotel he worked in.
Met Harry Enfield - he came into the shop where my mate worked and asked
'where's the bottled water?'
'Its behind you...'
He also got his leg patted by Sir Richard Attenborough at drama school.
One of my friends from college met Felicity Kendle on a night out. He was a 'bit' drunk.
He said 'You're Felicity Kendle!'
She said 'I know...'
As a younger boy I shook hands with Bill Gates. My father used to work for Microsoft three years ago I met the guys of 3 Inches of Blood. And...I saw a guy who looks -just- like George Lucas wandering around Terrace.
I met Michael A. Stackpole once, and Frank Warren, the dude who does PostSecret. I was on the stage crew and ran sound at an event that Lance Amstrong spoke at, and I was maybe 10-15 feet from him while he talked onstage, but I didn't actually meet him.
I've met that Alfonso fella that played Carlton in fresh prince. He was a very pleasant fellow. Met Ted Nugent at a traffic light. Met the lead singer of the bands chiodos and DRUGS. He's related to a cousins husband, he was nice but I told him how surprised I was at his bands success because the music was just awful
I've met a lot through my jobs, but there isn't a lot of time to chat so it's not like we're making personal introductions.
Some of the more notables:
Via work:
-Willy Nelson
-Weird Al
-Randy Travis
-Faith Hill
-Bad Company
-The Temptations
-Kriss Kross (lulz)
Otherwise:
-Kurt Cobain
-Buzz Aldrin
-Gravity Kills
-Stabbing Westward (most of them anyway)
-Android Lust (opened for these guys, but I don't really consider it work)
MrMoustaffa wrote: *Talked to King of Sweden and had no idea who he was at the time (that was a fun reveal to see him on stage later)
How was his English? I'm asking because his Swedish is horrible.
Really heavily accented, but he did a decent job. I could tell he was foreign but nothing screamed "Swedish" when I met him. I figured he was just some foreign military officer since he had two men in military uniform with him at all time.
He gave a speech to the scouts at the boy scout national jamboree and if I remember correctly, I could have sworn he cracked several jokes as well. From the speech he seemed like a really nice guy and he apparently spent the whole day walking around and meeting people.
But I was halfway into my second 100+ hour week by then so I could easily be imagining things.
As well as the Queen and the Duke, I've met deputy PM Nick Clegg, biologist Steve Jones and through my time going to Doctor Who conventions I've met a huge number of people in the show including 6 of the 8 original Doctors.
Also since moving to London I've spotted a lot of people on the tube or in the street, Bill Oddie, John Prescott, etc.
At a meat and greet, Brian "head" Welch from korn accidentally elbowed me in the crotch as he got up from the table in 2002, and got a VIP pass from falling over.
I met WWE superstar Antonio Cesaro at a gas station, really cool guy. I also talked with Glenn Jacobs(kane) for 4 hours on writing and the St.Louis area.
and I was a pen pal with stephen king at the age of 12. He wrote a note to my mother after she passed away, apologizing to her about how long it took for a dark tower book to come out (she had cancer). I wrote him back telling him thank you. He really helped me those 6 months when nobody did.
Well, I've met the guys from Switchfoot. They're essentially you're stereotypical California surfer dudes that just happen to be in a band together. Very nice guys that seem to be fans of their fans, which is always cool. They always do free open-air acoustic concerts for anyone that stays around long enough after their shows.
Other than that, I haven't met anybody famous. I don't get out a lot...
Oh just remembered, i met Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains once at a Soundwave festival a few years back. He was walking around looking for food.
I also had Lemmy from Motorhead wave at me while i was crowdsurfing at a motorhead gig. Highlight of the night.
Which one's Jonathan Coulton and what IS a Jonathan Coulton, anyway?
It's customary to at least put an indicator in the caption so people can pick out which is which - especially when "celebrities" may not be known outside your country.
Another couple of people I forgot - I met Terry Pratchett at a book signing.
I met Shefali Oza at college. But then, you'll only know of her if you live in the right part of the midlands - what with her being a regional news/weather lady...
We were doing capoeira and she descibed it as 'a full contact sport, so its definitely one for the boys.'
Wyrmalla wrote: I've met all of the major cast from the old Scottish comedy show Chewin' the Fat (and had dinner with three of them). ...Which isn't much of a challenge considering most of them live within a few miles of me... However as most of the "celebrities" I've met probably aren't known outside of Scotland, and again live in the same city of me, I doubt any of them count for non Scots. =/
Are they the same guys who made Still Game?
I've also met most of the BL writers, not that famous but it was a pretty big deal for me. I've also met most of the Man Utd. team a couple of years ago along with some of the Sunderland team. Not me but made was friendlyish with Queen. I've also met Jerry Adams and Martin McGuiness and asked Jerry Adams what it was like to be shot (I was about 3 or 4).
I've seen the actor who played Martin Platt in Coronation street in the restaurant I frequent a few times. I also briefly saw Pope John Paul II on his balcony in the Vatican waving to people whilst on a school trip there, didn't meet and greet him or anything though so I guess it doesn't really count. That's about it really, nothing to really boast about.
Slightly off topic here but hypothetically, IF I had the chance to meet any famous person of my own choosing however, it'd either be Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge) or Lena Headey (Scary looking woman in my avatar.) After seeing her in Dredd and Game of Thrones she's quickly become my favourite actress, (don't think I've seen her in a role I haven't liked yet.)
gianlucafiorentini123 wrote: I've also met Jerry Adams and Martin McGuiness and asked Jerry Adams what it was like to be shot (I was about 3 or 4).
I think you mean Gerry Adams
Closest I've ever been to a celeb was a few feet away from Brian May at the US embassy in London last year when I was being interviewed for my visa. It looked like he was there on business so I didn't go over to disturb him. It was also almost time for me to be called for my interview too
Blackie from The Hard-Ons (great Aussie punk band) used to baby sit me when I was growing up in Sydney.
Had the honour and pleasure of meeting 3 living Medal of Honor recipients; Michael Thornton, Thomas Norris, and Sammy Davis.
Went to a republican fund-raiser and met Newt Gingrich, also got a photograph with him and his wife.
Had a college class with Dave Arneson (RIP) - f k you Gygax you thief...
Also had a college class with Richard Wright - author and developer/designer of OpenGL (computer graphics language)
Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer just randomly in Amsterdam and Eindhoven.
I've run into Sharon van Adel (main vocalist for Within Temptation) and Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-main vocalist of The Gathering) on numerous accasions in the super market, they both lived pretty near my parents.
edit:
Oh, and Geert Wilders He was doing some promotional stuff or whatever in the city 5 minutes away from me. I was mainly occupied by not laughing at his hair.
I've met Dave Trampier, (the guy who did the Wormy comic as well as the famous 'prying the eyes from the gold statue' cover art for D&D) after he went into seclusion. (He's a really cool guy. I know he's requested to never be contacted regarding the games industry again, so I don't ever talk to him about it.)
I've met David Levy (one of the guys who discovered the comet that hit Jupiter) but only to shake hands.
My really cool one is Robert Bakker. (Bakker is the scientist who discovered the 6-foot tall raptors (actually called Utahraptors) featured in the Jurassic Park films. He is also the basis for the character of Alan Grant, as he was written in the original novel.) My father and I were going to see him speak, and he pulled me out of the crowd, shared his dinner with me, autographed a copy of his book, and drew me a poster of a little-known dinosaur species. (There is a part of his whole act when doing speeches where he proclaims that children are infinitely smarter than adults, and draws a detailed anatomic drawing of a dinosaur. Inevitably, every adult in the audience will fail to identify the species, at which point he will call on a "random" child, who of course knows the answer, having been coached beforehand. ) It was a really cool experience.
I met a woman at a con that I had never heard of who was introduced by the organizers as a 'writer for White Wolf.' Can't remember her name. I do recall that she was one of the worst people I've ever met.
The most famous celebrity that I've met is Barack Obama. The most interesting celebrity I've met is either Dan Dennett, Kofi Annan, or Morris Day. I've also met Richard Dawkins, and he is just as much of douche in person.
dogma wrote: The most famous celebrity that I've met is Barack Obama. The most interesting celebrity I've met is either Dan Dennett, Kofi Annan, or Morris Day. I've also met Richard Dawkins, and he is just as much of douche in person.
That doesn't surprise me, I've met a few people that hung on Dawkins' every word and they were just as much of a dbag as I imagined him to be.
)
k you Gygax you thief...
