E-mailing Famous People

[danlo]

Ok--I'll get it all out of the way at once--however it may reveal my preppy and rich parent's background. My parent's best friend was Alan C. Collins, a noted scholastic and history publisher-through him I met Lew Ayers (original Man in the Iron Mask, All's Quiet on the Western Front), Paul Harvey, the gazillioniare (McDonald's adman, not the radio guy), Peter Tompkins (The Secret of the Great Pyramids/The Secret Life of Plants) and played tennis with Ezra Pound. I've shaken hands with tennis stars Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe (at the U. S. Open) and Clark Grabner (at a clinic) and took lessons from Pancho Segura. My fifth grade class shook hands with Marlo Thomas while she was filming That Girl's lead in promo at Independance Hall. I met Kirk Douglas at a rally at Princeton and bumped into "crazy" John Nash (Noble Prize winner/A Beautiful Mind) a couple of times while partying with the locals in the bushes at the entrance of Princeton.

I campaigned for and met Bill Bradley (NBA Hall of Famer). I met actors John Cazale (Dog Day Afternoon, Godfather and The Deer Hunter) and Fritz Weaver at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven CT. My prospective Godfather (I elected not to be baptized) was David Dodge who wrote To Catch a Thief (the story the Hitchcock film was apapted from) and other writers I've met include, SRD, Roger Zelazny, George R. R. Martin, Jack Williamson, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Jane Linkskold, Walter Jon Williams, Charles de Lint, Fred Saberhagen, Roger Vardeman, Spider Robinson, S. M. Sterling and N. Scott Momaday.

I also ran out on the street and scared the crap out of Dave Mason in Greenwich Village, NYC '76 (Traffic's guitarist and famous solo artist) almost causing him to drop one of his three guitars as we shook hands. (And was thrown off stage by Rick Wakeman at a Yes concert--but don't ask how that happened )

(oh and seeing Roland's post--my great, great, great, great grandaunt was 1st Lady Julia Dent (Grant) and I'm directly related to Francis Marion "The Swamp Fox" (...of whom The Patriot was loosely based on)

[Roland of Gilead]

Danlo, three of yours really caught up eye. I'm a huge fan of the Swamp Fox - I did a research paper on guerilla warfare in the American Revolution for a college history class.

And two, Kirk Douglas - my all-time favorite movie is Spartacus.

And three, Rick Wakeman - my all-time favorite group is Yes, I have all their albums, and I also have two or three of Wakeman's albums, like The Legends of King Arthur and the Round Table.

Authors I've met - Margaret Weis, Andrew J. Offutt, Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, Gordon R. Dickson, David Gerrold.

Famous actor - Alan Hale, Jr., better known as the Skipper on Gilligan's Island.

[aTOMiC]

I probably shouldn't contribute to this thread but I'd like to offer a bit of contrast. I have never emailed anyone that would be considered to be noteworthy. I have never met a published author. I have never met a known musician or actor. I am not aware of being related to anyone worth mentioning. I've never been to a book signing. I've never been to a convention. I've never accidentally run into someone at the mall or the post office. I've lived here in Tampa all my life and I have never in all that time knowingly had contact with any Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Devil Ray or Lighning player. I am a musician and have been playing around town on and off since 1982. Unless some of the bands I played with found success in any notable way I managed to stay clear of any celebrities there. I have many people on my list that I would like to have contact with. I am an aspiring writer so speaking with likes of Donaldson would be freaky. I'd like to talk with Ric Ocasek of the Cars. Geddy Lee, Alex Leifson or Neil Peart of Rush. I just don't see it happening any time soon. I'm just unlucky or just too dad burn shy to make it happen. Boo hoo for me.

[dANdeLION]

Let's see....atheletes first:

1) I have gone to church with Jimmy Dubose, Steve Christie, and Fred McGriff (all Bucs except for Fred, who's 8 home runs away from 500).

2) I met Mike Alstott in a local music store. I told him to kick Eagle @$$. It took him 2 years, but he finally did it!

Okay, now musicians:

1) I have talked with Jeff Berlin several times, who is a fantastic bassist who played for Frank Zappa, Yes, and Bill Bruford.

2) I met and talked with Otto Smith, who is like the Randy Jackson of CCM (DC Talk, Sonic Flood, etc.); he's another excellent bassist. In fact, Otto was judging my band when we met. It's the only time I have been nervous about playing since the '80's!

3) I have talked with Ken Smith of Ken Smith basses, as well as several other bass builders, but only Ken was a professional bassist.

4) I know Beaver Felton, another big time bassist, and Dave LaRue, who co-own Bass Cantral in Orlando.

5) I have met and played with several signed and popular CCM bands like Bleach, Violet Burning, Small Town Poets and the like.

My dad used to race cars, so I have met several semi-famous drivers back in the 70's, but I hardly remember meeting them, and don't remember their names, except for 'Big Daddy' Don Garlitz.

[Brinn]

I've played hoops with ex-NBA player and 7 footer Yinka Dare and I ran into Robert Parish of the Celtics at a Boston nightclub.

[hierachy]

-Same as Tom C (few details changed, like not being in a band and what town I live in)

[danlo]

Well I've also met Luc Longley (Bulls/Timberwolves) and Kenny Thomas (Rockets/76ers) but they played at UNM so I just consider them local boys like SRD...

[duchess of malfi]

Living near Ann Arbor you see all sorts of athletes in their college days. I went out with some friends for pizza one night and some of the UM football players were at the next table over at Cottage Inn. They started their meal with a large pizza each for an appetizer. They then went on to the rest of their meal, each a full order of pasta, garlic bread, and salad. Each had his own pitcher of pop. I think each one individually ate what my entire table of people ate together. They were big boys with big appetites.
The Red Wings often come through the area hospitals to visit with the patients, and hand out small items like pens...I've always been too shy to go up to them, though. The Wings also play softball together all summer long as a team, to support a variety of charities. Again, I have always been too shy to ask for an autograph, but love their pin striped red and white baseball pants.
Oh, and my dentist is a former UM quarterback, and his office has all sorts of neat memorabilia in it.
My gym teacher in high school played football in the NFL...
I've never met any famous writers or musicians...or actors or anyone like that...
I am distantly related to one US President, and lots of people who served in state office in Virginia...all in other centuries, though, none recently that I know of have gone into politics...

[dANdeLION]

Hey, I just went to the K-Mart in an unsuccessful attempt to get the latest Rush cd, and I see that Pete Rose will be signing autographs in about half an hour. They had a line set up and security, but nobody was in line. It reminds me of Spinal Tap.....

[Revelstone_dweller]

Well, I don't think you'll consider them famous, but I've also had an e-mail contact with:
LES U. KNIGHT, the founder of Voluntary Human Extinction Movement ;
and
Reverend Chris Korda, the head of Church of Euthanasia.

[aliantha]

I was a journalist for 20 years. I shouldn't even post. If I named all the famous, almost-famous, and infamous people I've ever met, we'd be here for days....

Highlights:

• * I once had dinner with Burl Ives -- and his wife, and a friend who was doing p.r. for the theater where Mr. Ives was performing that night. (Burl Ives was the voice for Sam the Snowman on "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", but he was a famous folksinger long before that.) Mr. Ives didn't say much, but he ate a lot of breadsticks. (He was a BIG guy.)
  * Howard Dean once called me from a humvee in an ice storm.
  * I interviewed Larry King. It was when Frank Sinatra was near the end -- Larry is friends with Nancy Sinatra. This interview gave me the heebie-jeebies -- here I am, interviewing the King of Interviewing, what if I mess up? It went fine, though.
  * I interviewed Jesse Jackson.
  * I sat next to Dan Quayle at a news conference he was giving when he was running for the Indiana state senate -- well before he was Vice President.
  * While I was in grad school, we had some guest authors come to speak to us, so I met a few literary-type folks there.
  * My kids and I have met Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Tamora Pierce, and Brian Jacques at various book-signing events.
  * I asked former President Ford a question during a news conference once. Gosh, he's *tall*. I've interviewed scads and scads of politicians. And I've been to several Correspondents' Dinners here in DC, so you could say I've had dinner with both President Bush the elder and President Clinton (and 500 or so other folks, in a ballroom the size of a football field, but still).
  * If you've ever seen Toria Tolley on CNN Headline News, I used to work with her in Huntington, WV. In fact, for a short while I wrote for CNN's Washington bureau, so I've met Bernard Shaw and a bunch of other anchors and reporters.
  * I got autographs and kisses from Harry Chapin and his brother Tom after a concert in Huntington, WV.
  * Styx played for an assembly at my jr. high (they were trying to get kids to come to their concert at the high school that night -- clearly, this was well before they became famous).
  * And I once wrote SRD a letter, and he responded. I still have it somewhere.

I'm going to stop now....

[Worm of Despite]

Bah, journalists have all the fun!

Well, SRD replied to an E-mail I sent him very recently. Yep, life is complete.

[hierachy]

SRD answered my question on his site.

[The Leper Fairy]

My dad designed a house for steven segal once and had lunch with Bill Pullman.