Spin Off from OT - What Movie\TV celebrities have you met and how was the experience?

In the 1980's when I was in the Air Force, Mr. T was at the Base Exchange complex signing autographs. He's a short dude. The thing that stuck out was he very politely stood up to address the crowd and asked the adults to allow the kids to be moved to the front so they could get some time with him. Pretty cool.

I met James Earl Jones in 1997 when he was invited to Kennesaw State University by the African-American Student Alliance to speak during Black History Month. He came to speak and I got to ask a question during the Q&A.

From his perspective, I guess if you're told that a college outside of Atlanta has brought you in to speak for Black History Month, then it's reasonable to assume it might be a HBC, or otherwise predominantly Black student population. You can imagine his surprise when he came out on stage to a sea of almost all lily-white faces who were fired up AF to see the voice of Darth Vader/Mufasa/CNN. You could read it on his expression.

He even admitted as much, saying that he expected a slightly different demographic makeup for the crowd. He'd prepared a reading of Frederick Douglass' speech from the unveiling of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, and asked the crowd if it was all right if he read the presentation as-rehearsed.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and he said before he began, he needed to dispense with what had become a ritual of his before every speaking engagement. He explained that throughout his career, he developed this practice about two decades ago, and when he completes it, it makes every public engagement go smoother. Knowing his history of having a stutter as a child, I fully expected him to reference this and maybe thank one of his teachers who helped him overcome this difficulty in his childhood.
I was wrong.

Instead, he leaned over the lectern and got right up on the mic and said...

"No. *I* am your father...."

The crowd erupted.

He then explained that the requests invariably came for him to deliver that line, and he found that when he leads with that, it often puts the crowd at ease and they're more receptive to any non-Star Wars discussion that follows.

ETA - I told him that for me and my generation, he'll always be the voice of Darth Vader. For my little brothers, he'll be Mufasa. To my Dad, he's Terence Mann form Field of Dreams.

My question for him was which of his characters defines his career to him?

His answer was that he's still waiting on that role that will make his mark on posterity. I thought it was perfect.

Met Joffrey at a bar in Dallas once. It is really, really weird meeting Jack Gleason because he is nothing like Joffrey and the exact opposite of him. One of the nicest guys I’ve met. He was at the time working on a puppet show about a family of bears, which is the least Joffrey thing I could think of. He was with some of his friends at a table across the bar, so only spoke with him for like 4 minutes before heading back to hang with his blokes.

Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) after seeing him in Oliver in Covent Garden, London. He was normal as could be which threw me off.

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I did cocaine with Wayne Toups. It was... well, you know...

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I smoked a few joints with Dan Toler. Not sure if he's really a celebrity, but he was in the Allman Brothers band for several years.

As a young boy, I met Adam West and Burt Ward of "Batman" fame at the World of Wheels car show in Baton Rouge. It was the early 1980s but West and Ward appeared in full costume as Batman and Robin, seated at a table to sign autographs.

My mother asked them if I could make my way behind the table for a quick photo between the stars. West replied to my mom, in full-on Batman dialect, "We don't normally allow patrons behind the table, ma'am, but in this case, we'll make an exception." I got the pic and an even better story to tell.

John Schneider
nicest dude you will ever meet

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Chris Pratt

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It probably goes without saying for most Hollywood types, but my personal theory is that any of them who choose/refuse to live in LA are probably, at heart, good people.

Chris Pratt & Jennifer Garner are the first two celebs who come to mind.

I got upgraded to first class in a flight from LAX to Memphis my senior year in college in 2004. I sat next to Steve Harvey on his way to do a show at one of the casinos in Tunica. He was pretty cool and we talked a little about what I was doing in California and where I was from. All of the women working at the Memphis airport freaked out when they heard Steve Harvey was there after we got off the plane