Who Have You Met?

[TheKingFisher]

Well, I'm from L.A. and have seen many a celebrity but I don't go chasing them down.  In fact we're conditioned to nod 'sup and move on.

 

But I don't think it's a problem for someone to want an autograph, take a picture or mince a few words with someone they admire.  Hopefully they are admired for an accomplishment and not simply for being a celebrity.  It's also not about what it means to them, it's about what it means to you.  Hopefully neither party is expecting a life changing encounter.

[scrutch]

David Copperfield made me disappear on stage in Vegas. You should have seen the disappointment on my wife's face when I reappeared in the back of the auditorium.

I used to work for Hoosier Racing Tire in the 90's and helped develop their Winston Cup radial tire for the infamous "tire wars". During that time I met pretty much all the race drivers including Dale Earnhardt and Ernie "Swervin" Irvan.

I spent a lot of time with the few who were friendly to us and ran our tires like Geoff Bodine, Jeff and Ward Burton, Jeremy Mayfield, Joe Nemechek, Tony Stewart (was still cutting his teeth in the Busch series but was always around. He was a great friend of Bob Newton, owner of Hoosier), Neil Bonnett was around a lot too. He and Bob Newton were close buddies. It was pretty somber around Hoosier when Neil died at the 1994 Daytona 500.

A few others, Boxer Larry Holmes, pro golfers Stweart Cink, Vijay Singh, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, actors Sean Aston, Gary Sinise.

[Jigfishn10]

Gordie Howe, I was on the ice with him and took a pass from him. Nice guy!

Bobby Orr when I was a kid. Huge thrill for me back then.

[Felix77]

Mike Iaconelli this weekend.

 

[SirSnookalot]

Bob Lanier.............................was his real estate agent, had a friendship for a few years.

Dave Bing..............................Bob stopped by his house to BS while we were looking at homes.

Gordie Howe..........................was at his cottage on Lake Erie as kid, we did chin ups on his biceps.

Alex Delvecchio......................bought scrap from him after he retired from hockey, owned shop making trophies.

Thomas, Hitman, Hearns.......met him several times when I was doing boxing photography.

Hilmer Kinty...........................same as Tommy Hearns.

Emanual Stewart...................same as Tommy Hearns.

Jackie Kallen.........................boxing manager and life long friend since elementary school.

Redd Foxx.............................he bought drinks for our table and chatted for awhile between performances.

Joe Morton, actor..................schmoozed at the pool in Cancun a few times.

Superman, aka Christopher Reeve...met on the set of Somewhere in Time, had dinner twice on Mac Island.

[flippin and pitchin]

Uh flippin and pitchin, I'm going to need a little clarification here.  Which James Brown?  Please tell me you didn't meet the Godfather of Soul and that it was no big deal?  If so I think the following emoticon is appropriate.  

 

 

The one and only.  He wore a three piece suit and the jewelry on one hand was worth more than I will make in my life time. His body guards were most imposing. 

[deaknh03]

Don Muraco

Dave Mustaine

Marvin Hagler

Tesco Vee

Sully Erna

Pete Rose

Dave Cowens

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Met James Gandolfini at Cabela's one day. Had about three carts full of camo clothes and what not. He walked up behind me in the checkout line.

 

Very cool dude and A LOT bigger/taller than I imagined.

[Teal]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention James Brown from Fox Sports, along with Tim Ryan (Sirius NFL/former Bears DT), Pat Kirwan, Romeo Crenel, Cliff Branch, Wade Phillips, Scott Pioli, Todd Haley, Rob Ryan.....

Man that is awesome! I listen to Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwin everyday on Sirius XM. Those guys are great..they are a riot too. Ive been listening to them for so long, i feel like i know them..

[slonezp]

Actor/comedian Jay Johnston from the Sara Silverman show, a few movies and a bunch of comedy central shows. He's from the Chicago suburbs and we did some partying in our teen years. Actor Mark DeCarlo also from Chicago who got his start on game shows, MTV, has done movies, cartoon voices, and shows on the travel channel. His mother and my mother are best friends. 

[MCS]

Al Kaline, Larry Dolby, Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray, Yogi Berra, Stan Musial, and Maury Wills.

They were all at various baseball card shows when I was about 10-13 yrs old, Wills was by far the nicest and chatted for like 15 minutes about playing highschool baseball, stealing bases and his career highlights. Stan also talked to us and reminised with my Pops about old sportsman park and smacking them over the roof in left field. Had a chance to meet Buck O'neil at one of the shows, regret not shaking his hand and telling him how much I appreciated hearing his stories. The only other famous person I will mention was kinda like meeting him. We ate lunch on black friday one year next to Peyton Manning we used to go to NYC frequently and right by FOA there used to be a McAnns pub. He came in with his leather and fur coat, sat next to our table with his wife, ordered nachos and a pitcher of diet coke with lemon. I didn't actually meet him because I refused to talk to him because he played for that team that was stolen away from Baltimore in the night.(how I was raised - Colts are dead to us) I was with my wife and her friend who had no clue who he was. I told her and people were walking over to him and she was like go get his autograph but I stuck to my guns for principle, didn't let the old hometown down LOL

[quanjig]

Rode in an elevator with Denny Brauer when he was doing a seminar in Richmond. Dan Aykroyd running across a parking lot! He swore it wasn't him, very funny! Did some work at Al Gore's house and met Tipper! Also did some work at Ken Harvey's house too!

I also met speedbead a couple years ago!!

[TheKingFisher]

 

Wow, hopefully Speedbead didn't pull a Dan Aykroyd on you!

[Raider Nation Fisher]

Lets see. Bo Jackson, Bart Starr,, Evan Mathis (the best defensive tackle in the NFL. I played football and wrestled with him in highschool.), The Misfits, Jamey Jasta, BAM (got slapped by him too), Carnell Williams, ronnie Brown, Thomas Dansby, Dontarious Thomas, Kenny Stabler, Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler (the body builder, not the QB.), Jason Campbell, Bowling for Soup, Dave Navarro (he gave me a cig), and thats all I can think of right now.

[SirSnookalot]

Al Kaline,

Forgot about this until I read Kaline.  Back in the day many professional athletes did not earn enough $ from their professional sport, Bobby Layne QB of the Detroit Lions was one of them. I was a kid about 12, that would make it somewhere around the Lions' last championship, Bobby Layne owned a collision shop on Wyoming Ave in Detroit, just down the street from my dad's store.  Somehow the 2 met in the neighborhood both my dad and Bobby lane were avid fishermen, so they went fishing a few times in his boat, my dad never went fishing without me.  To say I knew Bobby Layne would be a stretch as I never had any meaningful one on conversation with him, but I did fish with him.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Wow, hopefully Speedbead didn't pull a Dan Aykroyd on you!

 

I do typically deny my identity when I meet people. LOL

[slonezp]

I do typically deny my identity when I meet people. LOL

Everytime I look at your avatar pic, all I can think of is when Peter Griffin grew a beard and had birds living in it 

http://youtu.be/ywDFcuSbzzA

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Everytime I look at your avatar pic, all I can think of is when Peter Griffin grew a beard and had birds living in it 

http://youtu.be/ywDFcuSbzzA

 

 

 

Dont be jealous. LOL

 

 

[Fish Chris]

I once had Kevin Van Dam, Jay Yellas, Mark Davis, and Zell Rowland, standing around me, looking at my trophy album, at Clear Lk   I think they were impressed.... in spite of the fact that their game and mine, are two completely different things.....

 

Peace,

Fish

[Fishing Rhino]

We met Curly.

 

 

And Ink,

 

 

of this "cast".

 

 

[SudburyBasser]

The then prime minister of Canada - Jean Chretien. Talked on the phone once to the current Canadian prime minister but that was before he was back in politics. Outside of that, mostly Canadian celebrities that most Canadians wouldn't know.

 

So I suppose they aren't really celebrities.

 

Edit: I forgot, I did meet John Saxson once. A guy who fought next to Bruce Lee does deserve a mention. If you ever meet him, don't bring up Enter the Dragon.

[SirSnookalot]

The then prime minister of Canada - Jean Chretien.

That's pretty cool.

[JoePhish]

My most memorable celebrity encounter was when I met Clarence Clemons the day after The Promise was released in the local Publix several months before he died.He was in obvious pain/discomfort and seemed burdened by his leg braces when I approached him. We spoke and joked for a couple of minutes and he volunteered to take a few pics with me. We both walked away with ear to ear smiles.

I've seen Springsteen maybe 30 times so this was a biggie for me.

 

I've met a few other musicans.

Paul Stanley, twice. 

Eric Carr about a year before he died.

Joan Jett in a night club back in the 80's.

 Worked security for a Berlin gig around the same time. Got to casually talk to the band before and after the show.

Just met Kenny G last week at PGA National.

The most most awkward encounter was when I met Felipe Rose, the Indian from the Village People. Late 80's I was working for the company that made his hearwear for an upcoming tour in Australia. All the secretaries were overly giddy that he was coming. When I met him he asked me if I ever did any road work and if I wanted to be a roadie for the upcoming tour. I took a step back and politely told him I that I would be in school during that time. For the rest of the day I teased all of the secretaries that he liked my butt better than theirs, lol.

 

 

The biggest D-bag celebrity encounter I ever had was when I met coach Jimmy Johnson in the Winn Dixie near Tavernier Creek. He had a clammy handshake and wasn't very friendly. That's ok because I dislike him as much as I dislike the Dallas Cowboys.

That same week I was staying in a house across the canal from the one Jason Taylor was staying. Spoke to him every morning as we headed out fishing. Very cool guy.

 

Growing up on Long Island my path has crossed those of many NY Jets and NY Islanders throughout the years (Kevin Mawae, Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Bobby Nystrom and a lot more).

Since I've been living in Florida I've met tons of baseball players. The Cardinals and Marlins have their spring training facility nearby. Ramon Castro was the coolest. Dan Uggla predicted his 2010 season to me in a mensroom, lol.

I've also run into a fair share of professional golfers. PGA National is right down the road and when the Honda Classic is taking place the town really buzzes. Ernie Els was the coolest of the golfers I've met.

 

One of my favorite authors is Nelson DeMille. I've had an opportunity to meet him on a couple of occasions.

 

The biggest political heavy hitter I've met was Dick Armey.

[roadwarrior]

Fishermen

Bill Dance

Chris Lane

Mike Iaconelli & wife

Gerald Swindle & wife

Pete Gluszek

Dave Wolak

Mike McCelland

Harold Ensley "The Sportman's Friend"

 

Athletes

Roger Maris

The Kansas Chief's Super Bowl team which included eight players named to the Hall Of Fame

George Brett

John Elway

Joe Theismann

Bobby Bowden

 

Politicians

President Ronald Reagan

Senator/ Attorney General John Ashcroft

Govenor/ Senator Kit Bond

Senator John Danforth

 

Movie stars/ Entertainers

Sigourney Weaver

Willey Nelson

Billy Joel

[SudburyBasser]

That's pretty cool.

 

Yeah, not every day you can say you met a world leader. I didn't agree with his politics but I admired the fact that he's the only major western politician who tried to choke out a protester who got in his way (pic here). You have to like that.