I remember my father telling us all sorts of horror stories about his years on the Tacoma police force. Some of his more whimsical moments, however were served safegaurding visiting potentates and celebrities. Elvis Presley once gave a concert in Lincoln Bowl, and my dad found him to be extremely polite and gracious. John Kennedy came to a Democratic rally at Cheney stadium, and as he was being ushered out of the arena by the local cops, he asked one officer--my father--where one could get a good cup of coffee in Tacoma. My dad looked and him and said, "Well, my wife makes a pretty good pot," whereupon JFK laughed out loud.
Any other brushes with greatness out there?
I got to meet the band Autograph back in 1984 when parachute pants were in!
I wore a pair to meet them...they were black & red with all the zippers & stuff.
Remember their one hit wonder? "TURN UP THE RADIO!!!!"
Does that count?
My dad drove passed Richard Nixon once, long years ago. (Before he became president in fact.) Nixon was, apparently, pacticing to get a drivers license.
While work for various airlines, he has also come in contact with Richard Dean Anderson, Tiny Tim, and Carrot Top.
Y'know, the BIG actors of Hollywood.
Acorrding to family lore. my Great Aunt once dated Bob Hope.
As for myself, I met a man who said he was good friends with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Had a picture of him with Damme-man and everything. He seemed quite proud of himself.
Well, I'v had conversations with Sgt. Slaughter, Larry "The Living Legend" Zybyzco, "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe, Sam Houston, Butch Reed, and Verne Gagne. All of Pro Wrestling fame.
Also football player Larence Taylor and an incident with Roberto Duran where he passed gas in my Taxi and he laughed about it.
***************** SPOILERS *******************
Then again your reading the post of the "New World Order" messiah. I'm to ride a white horse in Isreal with the Name of God as the power behind my appearance in the time to come. All according to a vivid dream someone had about me many years ago. I have all the signs of the one to come and do even now carry the new Law that will govern the world in the new era. For now I've been in waiting in preparation for the right moment when the door opens. The correct word is protected for the right time. Just think, your here chatting about movies with me all this time. Talk about brushes with destiny. Life is funny that way. The truth is sometimes stranger that fiction. For now lets talk about movies.
When we lived in Florida in the early 70's my mother worked for Art Linkletter. Also when I was a baby we were shopping in a supermarket and my mother said that Carol Burnett came up and told my mother that I was a cute baby.
Nothing that cool - but during a business trip my father sat across from Mr. T on an airplane - He had no idea who he was - funny thing, he recognized him while I was watching the A-Team about 2 weeks later.....
My parents (mom in particular) have had many celeb encounters from chance meetings in an elevators and airplanes to meeting Chuck norris at a drive-in. I once told her to make a list of everyone..I think the last time I saw it , it was well over 40. Nobody huge like a president. Some close family members used to vacation at Clark gables house, i'm related to him somehow..him and tommy lee jones.
As for me nothing notable, except I walked right by Judd nelson in the mall when he was incognito while visiting dallas a few years back during the shannon doherty fiasco. I guess that's what I get for living in texas. No culture here i tell ya.
In grade school, I was friends with a kid whose dad was a Nixon secret service agent (this was when Nixon lived in New Jersey during the mid-80s). He pulled some strings and got Nixon to come do an assembley at my school. It was a good speech he gave (work hard, do your homework, always try your best). On his way out, he came over and shook my friend's hand (the friend whose dad was on his detail), and then extended his hand to me in the next seat. Like a seventh grade jackass, I slapped his palm (as in slapping him five) instead of shaking. He laughed and continued out.
So I could have been "a handshake away" from JFK, Elvis, Deng Xiao Ping, Breshnev and countless other huge historical figures. As it turns out, I am a "low five" away from them... which I guess is more than most.
Knowing more about Nixon than I did then, I have often imagined him leaning over to his nearest secret service agent and whispering out the side of his mouth: "Have that boy liquidated."
Some years back at the San Diego Comic Con I almost walked straight into Michael Berryman in the process of dodging out of the way of a very cheesed-off looking Lux Interior, who was in one hell of a hurry to get SOMEwhere.
Oh, and I sat next to Vanessa Del Rio on the subway back in New York City once...
Len
I've met Scott Thompson and Mark Mckinney from KITH, Eric Idle, and various members of punk bands from going to concerts.
Kind of like the story about sitting accross from mr t., my friend was in the mall of america and was wearing a shirt for the band strung out and then some group of guys came up to him and complimented him on his shirt. Only later did he realize that it was actually the band strung since they were in town playing a show that night.
I once interviewed Ted diBiase, the Million Dollar Man, when he visited my home town a few years ago. This was well after he'd left wrestling and gone into a sort of travelling ministry. One of the local churches brought him to town as guest speaker and main attraction at a floor hockey tournament (quite a big one actually). He talked to an auditorium full of youngsters about how fame and fortune sent him down the wrong path, and how he got his life back together, and shared a few funny stories from his wrestling career. He's not too happy with the direction wrestling's gone since his time. Before this, however, I managed to get a one-on-one interview with him. Nice guy, and a lot bigger in person than I had expected.
To date, diBiase is the most famous person I've interviewed, although I've come pretty close to a couple of other famous people.
Ted Dibiase's father died in the wrestling ring. I use to watch Ted Dibiase before his WWF days on Georgia Championship Wrestling. About 1980 he took 3 piledrivers on the concrete floor by Terry Gordy with some assistance of the other Fabulous Freebirds. It's the only time I actually thought a wrestler was seriously injured. It was quite convincing (Not to mention Mick Foley's and Undertaker in the Hell in a Cell Match). The Million Dollar man idea was entertaining, but I never really like that gimmick as Ted Dibiase was a quality pro wrestler and didn't need such a gimmick.
Dibiase has a small moment in a limosine in Bret Harts WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS. There you can see Dibiase, Hart, and Honkytonk Man (Wayne Farris) discussing the direction of the sport and how they didn't like it.
Even I find it hard to watch Pro Wrestling anymore as the sport was dependent on the appearance or re-appearance of certain wrestlers. Befor satilite tv they had regional promotions. When some act became old they would just leave the territory and go to the next were he could get a fresh run. National exposer on TV makes this very hard to do. Also you'll notice they finally stopped that rediculous high risk stuff after WWF's compition with WCW and ECW ended a couple years ago.
My favorite moment, which I've written about on here before, was hanging out with Devin Townsend on the Strapping Young Lad tour bus. He is, without question, my favorite musician and one of the coolest guys on the planet. One of the greatest nights of my life.
I go to a lot of concerts, so I've met quite a few bands. Some others are:
Gene, Manesh, Byron, and Jed (the rest of Strapping Young Lad)
Barney, Shane, and Mick from Napalm Death
Brian from ShadowsFall
Lee from Cathedral (shared an elevator after a show)
Byron and Doc from God Forbid
Hank Williams III (at a Superjoint Ritual show)
Tommy Victor from Prong
All three members of Mother Superior (also Rollin's backing band)
Jim Stafford
Andy Williams
Wayne Kramer
Brother R
One I forgot....
After he performed a sold out show in Iowa City several years ago that my friends & I went to, Vanilla Ice came out the back of the venue and I said "Kick ass show man!" and held out my hand palm up. He gave me five and then proceeded into his tour bus.
Yes, I'm ashamed to admit it now but Vanilla Ice gave me five.
Lots of moments with 80's British musicians nobody in the US will recognise (Comsat Angels? Gang of Four? Mary Wilson? Comsat Angels? Wah Heat? 3 Mustapha 3? Comsat Angels?). Also Danny John Jules ("Cat" from "Red Dwarf"), whom I embarassed slightly by stating "Respec', man" and doing a gang handshake with.
Did I mention Steve Fellows of the Comsat Angels already? (DON'T mention "Real Genius", okay, dudes?)
I went to Junior and Senior High School with Billy Bob Thornton. I will not claim to be a friend of his, the one time I remember speaking to him I believe he thought I was going to hit him.
I only remember him being a real square kinda guy. He wore dorky glasses and clothes and had short hair when everyone else was wearing it long. He had a kinda strut when he walked that made him look like a real dork and a half (I believe he was trying to be cool). We had our 30 year reunion this year and a lot of people thought he might show up because he was back in Arkansas doing a movie, but he didn't .
His friend Rick Dial (his boss in Slingblade, the radio guy in Robert Duvalls Apostle) came though. He still lives in Malvern where we grew up and runs a furniture store. I believe Duvall and Billy have tried to talk him into becoming a character actor full time, but he prefers the furniture store. He said he is using the money from his acting gigs to send his daughter through college.
Two of my older brothers were friends with Frank Bonner (Herb from WKRP in Cincinatti) as children. They really hadn't kept up with each other and one of my brothers was at the local drive- in watching the movie The Equinox when to his surprise there is Frank Boers (his real last name) in the movie. This movie by the way falls under the category of a Bad Movie. Maybe I should look it up and review it .