Yasser Arafat, while head of PLO.

I was 18 years old. Worked as a bellboy at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm when Arafat visited. His entourage with a lot of security people locked down a whole section of the hotel. I delivered flowers to his room. Checked by at least five different bad looking security guys on my way I finally was shown in to his room. He lie on his bed and waved me to come right up to him. I placed the flowers on the night table, he thanked me, nodded and then I was shown out.

I dated a woman who was very close with the Gyllenhaal family (she was an assistant for both the parents and tutored Jake when he was young). We spent a fair amount of time at the parent's house up in the Hollywood Hills and I ended up at a number of parties including one right before the Oscar's the year he was up for Brokeback Mountain. Full A-list party including Ang Lee, Ziyi Zhang, Jennifer Aniston, Salma Hayak, etc. Also went to two of Jake's b-day parties, one at a place on Abbot Kinney where Robert Downey Jr. showed up among others, and the other party was up at the house and Calvin was in tow. Calvin ended up playing dominos with Penelope Cruz. He won't live that one down later in life.

I've also met many of the active 1-4 star generals including Odierno.

I've got a odd story;
In 1999 my (then) wife and I left England and moved to SoCal. Not long after we moved, we went out to a bar in Costa Mesa that a coworker had recommended.
We'd just got drinks when two guys walked up and started talking to us. They asked where we were from, what we did, etc. and then asked if I recognized them. I thought that was odd and asked whether I should, as you would. They kind of shrugged and laughed and we carried on talking. So I asked them what they did and they told me they were air traffic controllers - OK. Conversation about that . . .
. . . Anyway, I was starting to feel like we were having our night taken over by two guys I didn't know. So we finished our drinks, made some excuses, and left. It was on my mind for years who those guys were and why they thought I should have known them.

Years later I watched the movie 'Pushing Tin' when I realized we'd had a beer with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cussack . . . and I dissed them. The movie was being filmed at the time and they were out for the night playing character. Funny guys! They were really pleasant in honesty, so I'm really sorry if I was rude to them. Oops! :)

The priest from exorcist was a teacher at my high school

Saw Ray Charles on the elevator of my hotel once, but I don't think he saw me.

-e.

Long list, some others had already mentioned, only because of selling high-end cars many years ago. Could care less who they were :rolleyes:

Anyhow, for fun will mention an obscure name. When I was a kid and along with my father met Chester Gould at his home. Any of you recognize the name?

I drank with Paul Newman for about an hour in Newport in the summer of 83 and had really no idea who he was.

I dated May Anderson for over a year before she got semi famous and dated Kid Rock.

I had lunch with John Gaddas of Yale. Expert on the Cold War and Pulitzer Prize winner.

I met a bunch of actors years ago when I worked the National Playwrites Conference for 2 summers. Jack Kluggman and Tony Randell were there, very very nice guys. Kevin Kline and Peter Weller hung out - nice guys but serious womenizers. Merril Streep was there as well but very unapprouchable. Bianca Jagger would hang out. She was very cool...can't go into too much detail there...

I dated a few mobsters daughters as well. All very sweet nice girls who are beautiful, honest girls that deserve the best in life. I only held their hand. And thats all I have to say on that matter!

I've met Jack Olsen.

Dick Tracy!

My father and I did some work for Peter Weller back in the day. Really cool guy. Renaissance man to say the least.

I met Franco Harris at the Philly airport one Friday night as we were both being screwed over by US Airways. He was trying to get back to State College for a Penn State - Notre Dame football game and I was trying to get home. Had a brief talk with him about PSU and the Steelers as I'm an alum and a Steeler fan. Nice guy, quiet, was trying to be anonymous.

It was late 80s ish, I was in a local bar in Va Beach called Rogues and Rick Flair and Magnum TA came in..I was 19-23 at the time and a big RF fan...Like a LiL kid I when up To Rick and said " I think your the greatest Rick " He said "I appreciate it man"...

Got falling down drunk with one of the founders of gateway computers. It was great. Norm Waitt.... We were drunker than ****. I remember him saying "when we are born, we are innocent. We start ****ing it up from there"

Then we went to another bar looking for women. Some ladies must have known who he was or that dude had money because they were all over him at the next bar.


I didn't even know who the dude was until late that evening when someone told me. Was a fun night.

And I met red beard. So in your faces. Yo.

A few years ago now and probably not as impressive as many before...

Walking down Adelaide Street in Brisbane circa 2006 and coming towards me are three guys, 2 tall guys in black suits and a smaller older man in the middle. It looked bit odd so I was staring a bit and as they got closer i noticed a distinctive mark on the older guys's head. There was nobody else in the street ( I was at the business end so no shops) and the 2 big guys are now staring at me, as they get closer they are not big guys they are HUGE! both have coiled clear wires coming from their ears, as we approach i say (for some reason still unknown to me?) "G'day" with a courteous nod and get a slight nod in response. We past without further interaction and for the rest of the day it was bugging me to who that guys was, he looked very familiar but I just count put a name to the face! The big guys would have been called "SIR" whatever there names were:)

Later that day when reading the local newspaper, there he was, big article about him being inBrisbane to co-chair the global forum Earth Dialogue ....Mikhail Gorbachev!

I told anyone who would listen, with a mixed response to be honest! But for me, just a ordinary working guy from a small town in Scotland and to bump into a world leader just walking down the street, was impressive to me.

Too many to name from the world of music, film, sports, auto racing, aviation. All seemed like pretty down-to-earth people with a passion for their chosen craft.

Had a class at MSU with Magic Johnson..

minor hijack, but this is entertaining.

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I met Sammy Baugh a couple of times in the early 1960's. His sons went to Rotan (TX) High School which was one of our big rivals in football. He always came into the dressing rooms after the games and shook hands.

After ending his football career, he lived on his ranch (Double Mountain) outside of Rotan until he died a few years ago. Talk about a down to earth old guy...

Footnote: my Jr. year in high school Rotan beat us by a touchdown for the district title then went on to win the state championship. Two of his sons played on that team.

my great uncle is bucko kilroy