Who is the MOST interesting person you've ever met - famous or not famous?

[Heather Shay]

FAMOUS - Peter Noone (Herman of Herman's Hermit's) - he was so real. He played at our annual festival in my town and I dumped into him and helped him figure out where his band was. I found the band and they were backstage waiting to go on and said - DUH! where is Peter. I found Peter in the dressing room standing in his boxer shorts and I told him the band was waiting for him to go on. What a weird memory but a fun one - the band played great and Peter was an excellent showman.

 

NOT FAMOUS - my producer Rod who taught me the ropes in the recording studio and had faith in my writing and singing abilities when no one else did.

[Elizabeth Star]

Harold Ramis. I was doing some service work at his home. He was trying to order catering from a local deli and was having problems. What really impressed me was the fact he never once tried to use his celebrity status to gain an advantage. He also offered to shake my hand on the way out the door.

 

George Lucus is a lot shorter than I thought. He is also pretty down to earth. He just chilled on the couch watching tv while I fixed what I was there to fix. 
 

I’ve met others but these were the best two. 

[Heather Shay]

@Elizabeth Star wow - nice job being able to fix stuff for famous people. Best I did was doing sandwich delivery on Rodeo Drive for a week and running into the guy who played Julio on Sanford & Son and we chatted for a couple minutes about how hard it was to get acting work.

[Ivy]

To be honest, I don't know how to answer this.  I want to say whoever I'm talking to at the time.  But that's kinda a cop-out.  Can't think of anyone famous.  There certainly have been jerks at times but…  

Guess I'm not much good at ranking people.

 

It's still interesting to see the replies though.

[Heather Shay]

@Jandi okay then .... how about the most interesting conversation that left an impression on you - be it a friend or a teacher or maybe a lecture you attended?

[VickySGV]

Actually two that are important in the LGBTQ world, and they have a relation to each other:

 

Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride -- five years before she ran for state office, but was a White House Intern at the time.  Sarah had been a speaker at the Southern Comfort (Transgender) Conference that year. 

 

The Right Reverend +Gene Robinson, -- the first OUT gay Bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church who was consecrated wearing bullet-proof body armor under his vestments due to credible death threats.    I met him at one of the first church events I attended as Vicky, and had not really intended to come out to him, but it was wonderful I did.

 

Bishop Robinson married Sarah McBride and her husband Andy who died of cancer three days after the wedding.  (Andy was a Trans man). 

[Heather Shay]

@VickySGV that must have been a thrill - I have seen Sarah speak on the news and she was absolutely wonderful and I am very proud of how she represents the trans community.

[miz miranda]

The most interesting people i knew:

 

1) My wife's uncle. He was a young man during the depression and spent several in the CCC. He was very quiet but on several occasions spoke of his experience in the CCC and life during the height of the great depression.

 

2) A college friend's brother was one of John Gacy's lawyers. His stories of the meetings with Gacy would scare you more than any horror movie or book. Gacy was a serial killer in Chicago in the 70s.

 

I was very fortunate to work on cellphones during their infancy which resulted in being exposed to well known people at conferences: I've met Mark Cuban, Malcolm Gladwell, Dean Kamen (invented the Segway), 2 billionaires and the Microsoft Product Manager who bundled Internet Explorer with Windows resulting in the anti-trust issues with US.

 

I also had to travel substantially and got to fly business and first class frequently. On places and at the airport lounges I've met BB King, Chrissie Hynde, Dennis Farina, Phil Mickleson and Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme.

 

The billionaires were different but civil. Edie may have been having a bad day but she was a diva. Steve L. was your favorite goofy uncle. He was very friendly. Otherwise all were decent to others. Until thinking about the question, I had forgotten how interesting that part of my life had been.

[KymmieL]

Famous, will have to be Stacy David of the TV show Gears. Me and my wife met him at a bike show during Sturgis bike week. he is a great down to earth guy. I have also met some local news people when I was younger. Marylin Turner and John Kelly of channel 7 in Detroit. It was at a dog show when I was a teen. Marylin Turner was very nice and down to earth. We even have a picture of her trying her sunglasses on our Collie. On the other hand John Kelly was an arrogant snob. And those two were married.

 

interesting has to be my grandfather. He was by far the smartest man I have ever met. He was an electrical engineer. even inventing an adding machine. He taught at Ohio state. Alumni of Michigan agricultural collage, now known as Michigan State. He even did some consulting at the infamous Green brier resort government bunker. (before it became known to the public) While I never confirmed it. I believe he did some work with the Communication bunkers that are scattered around the country. Originally owned by the Gov and operated by the Bell (telephone) system.

 

Kymmie

[Heather Shay]

@KymmieL we're just a few degrees and cities off. I went to the University of Toledo and graduated with Industrial Engineering degree - so your grandfather at OSU is cool. I visited Ann Arbor often and maybe I was lucky enough to have seen him without knowing it.

[LaurenA]

I've met a few people in the software world back in the 80's.  Bill Gates, Bjarne Stroustrup, Philippe Kahn and Jerry Pournelle.  I have to say that Philippe was the most interesting of them.  He had a wild sense of humor and was a pretty good sax player.  Gates was pretty stuck up back then and I think he's improved with age.  Bjarne and I never saw eye to eye and had arguments about C++.  Jerry was always one for a party where he could hold court and spread his words of wisdom.

[Melissa Mazurek]

Carl Sagan. 

[claire1000]

Senator Robert Kennedy

[miz miranda]

I can't believe I forget include Arnold Palmer in my first response. One of the most genuine people I have encountered.

[Willow McKenzie]

I spent the last 8 years in a friendship with a Jewish woman named Ya'el.   My partner was her caregiver.   Yael was lesbian and a very dedicated fighter for lesbian-gay rights.   She dressed male yet she always made it clear she was a woman.   She was born in 1927 and escaped the holocaust and became a beatnik in New York in the 40's and 50's.  She would hang out in the gay bars and smoke pot with the black band members in the alley.  Most of them never knew she was a woman.   She had an IQ of 158, read books on quantum physics and non-euclidean geometry.  I have her library now, they are full of handwritten notes in the margins of most pages.   She was a very outspoken woman.   When she first met me she put up her butch lesbian,in your face, your a man and I have you pegged, defense.   That only lasted a few minutes and she just gave up on all that and we became the best of friends.     At first she told me I was a cross dresser, then she told me I was a woman, which made me transgender.   I was dressed male-ish and had a male name at the time.  I didn't tell her anything before hand.  She truly enjoyed watching and helping me transition.  She had a medical degree and she would sit there and bluntly discuss my breasts in medical terms beyond me.

   She passed away 2 January's ago.   I cried off and on for days.  I still can't come up with good words to express how much she meant to me.   When I get upset about how tough and unfair trans life is, I just think of what she had to fight and endure for 93 years.

 

Willow

[LusciousTheLock]

Shortly after meeting the woman who became my wife. I walked through her front door to find her naked in the lounge modelling for a Photographer / Sculptor. I was initally upset / confused, but soon the situation was explained. Albert Devine (he was around 70 then) was the most interesting person I ever met.

 

He wrote the Smokey Dawson comic strip in the Australian Sun newspaper back in the 30's & 40's. Did Pin-Up photography for Man magazine in the 50's. Set up a modelling agency, but ran out of good looking women in 50's Australia, so moved to New York where he studies art and met his wife... An ex-Nazi nurse who worked for Dr. Mengele... who later killed herself. He then moved to England where he worked for Air-fix creating the model air plane kits many people in the UK would remember and also inventor of that famous 70's toy "Weebles Wobble, but they dont fall down!". He also worked on many film sets over the years in stop-motion special effects and wrote a few books. I think he worked on the model for the Posiden adventure and some of the Sinbad movies.

 

So skilled, intelligent, clever and modest. A childlike fascination for everything. His house was a movie set. Literally, the place was amazing, but everything was bolster wood and glue!  A four poster bed in the most amazing room you ever saw, looked 400yrs old was just paint, glitter and charity shop curtains. 6' tall bronze statues throughout his house were just plaster of paris and paint. His TV, looking like a 40's oak cased unit was a modern LCD with formica trim. Each room being a set and a theme. He was a genius!

 

Surrounded by the most gorgeous women I had ever seen, yet he was not interested in any of them. He never had children of his own, so adopted our family as his own. It was all about the Art. My wife had modelled for him for years, and despite my curiousity as to the pictures he held of my dear wifey (The statues were obvious), he would never show me in case I found them indecent. When he passed away aged 81, he left an envelope addressed to me with all the pictures I had enquired about and I felt deep regret that he felt he couldnt share at the time.

 

He had no family of his own, and no wealth depsite his life of success. He left what he had to us and we traced and donated all his paintings and art to the models that had sat for him for atleast the past sixty years.

 

It was also a wakeup call about age. One of his most amazing paintings had been taken from some photo's of the prettiest woman I we had ever seen. Dressed as a ballet dancer wearing nothing but a black tutu and fishnets. Leg tucked up against her ear whilst balancing en-point. We traced her and wanted to return the painting and photo's. She came to the door with the aid of a walking frame. She must have been nearly 90yrs old. It was hard to imagine her being the same lady. She cried when she saw the photo's, stroking them and marvelled at the painting. They had been taken back in the mid 50's when Albert first came to the UK in a studio he set up. Amazing man and sadly missed.

[Willow McKenzie]

6 hours ago, LusciousTheLock said:

Shortly after meeting the woman who became my wife. I walked through her front door to find her naked in the lounge modelling for a Photographer / Sculptor. I was initally upset / confused, but soon the situation was explained. Albert Devine (he was around 70 then) was the most interesting person I ever met.

 

He wrote the Smokey Dawson comic strip in the Australian Sun newspaper back in the 30's & 40's. Did Pin-Up photography for Man magazine in the 50's. Set up a modelling agency, but ran out of good looking women in 50's Australia, so moved to New York where he studies art and met his wife... An ex-Nazi nurse who worked for Dr. Mengele... who later killed herself. He then moved to England where he worked for Air-fix creating the model air plane kits many people in the UK would remember and also inventor of that famous 70's toy "Weebles Wobble, but they dont fall down!". He also worked on many film sets over the years in stop-motion special effects and wrote a few books. I think he worked on the model for the Posiden adventure and some of the Sinbad movies.

 

So skilled, intelligent, clever and modest. A childlike fascination for everything. His house was a movie set. Literally, the place was amazing, but everything was bolster wood and glue!  A four poster bed in the most amazing room you ever saw, looked 400yrs old was just paint, glitter and charity shop curtains. 6' tall bronze statues throughout his house were just plaster of paris and paint. His TV, looking like a 40's oak cased unit was a modern LCD with formica trim. Each room being a set and a theme. He was a genius!

 

Surrounded by the most gorgeous women I had ever seen, yet he was not interested in any of them. He never had children of his own, so adopted our family as his own. It was all about the Art. My wife had modelled for him for years, and despite my curiousity as to the pictures he held of my dear wifey (The statues were obvious), he would never show me in case I found them indecent. When he passed away aged 81, he left an envelope addressed to me with all the pictures I had enquired about and I felt deep regret that he felt he couldnt share at the time.

 

He had no family of his own, and no wealth depsite his life of success. He left what he had to us and we traced and donated all his paintings and art to the models that had sat for him for atleast the past sixty years.

 

It was also a wakeup call about age. One of his most amazing paintings had been taken from some photo's of the prettiest woman I we had ever seen. Dressed as a ballet dancer wearing nothing but a black tutu and fishnets. Leg tucked up against her ear whilst balancing en-point. We traced her and wanted to return the painting and photo's. She came to the door with the aid of a walking frame. She must have been nearly 90yrs old. It was hard to imagine her being the same lady. She cried when she saw the photo's, stroking them and marvelled at the painting. They had been taken back in the mid 50's when Albert first came to the UK in a studio he set up. Amazing man and sadly missed.

Thank you for your story.   I understand.

[Heather Shay]

@LusciousTheLock what an amazing story. I am so glad I asked I have Bern rewarded beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you.

[LusciousTheLock]

Some people are simply fascinating

[Charlize]

I guess as i think of  the definition of interesting it includes a form of being able to hold my interest over time.  If exciting were to replace interesting my answer might be different.  I met a young woman in 1968 who initially attracted me sexually.  As we hiked oner a field of boulders she moved with a grace and strength that i remember to this day.  Perhaps it had been her training in acting and ballet that produced such grace.  I had actually seen her before as the lead in an amazing play but at the time i never though i'd meet her.  This was all over 52 years ago.  We were married on June 26th 1971.

Today she is in wheelchair living with MS with a non complaining grace that constantly amazes me.  I'm still finding out things about strength and grace that not only interest me but give me strength to continue life with my own difficulties.  She is not famous but certainly has had my interest through the years.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Heather Shay]

@Charlize what a beautiful story and woman. You are lucky and blessed as is she with you.

[Willow McKenzie]

3 hours ago, Charlize said:

I guess as i think of  the definition of interesting it includes a form of being able to hold my interest over time.  If exciting were to replace interesting my answer might be different.  I met a young woman in 1968 who initially attracted me sexually.  As we hiked oner a field of boulders she moved with a grace and strength that i remember to this day.  Perhaps it had been her training in acting and ballet that produced such grace.  I had actually seen her before as the lead in an amazing play but at the time i never though i'd meet her.  This was all over 52 years ago.  We were married on June 26th 1971.

Today she is in wheelchair living with MS with a non complaining grace that constantly amazes me.  I'm still finding out things about strength and grace that not only interest me but give me strength to continue life with my own difficulties.  She is not famous but certainly has had my interest through the years.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

Charlize,

 

    After my second divorce and buying my farm now 3 times, I met a non-binary person who is 11yrs younger than I.   She was at the end of her physically healthy rope when we met, so we never got to enjoy active youthful years together.   We love each other very much and we are just making the best of it.

Much Love to both of you!

Willow McKenzie and Bonnie

[Red_Lauren.]

Not really famous, but locally famous. I know a few local djs at a some what personal level. From when I worked in radio. 

 

I also got to meet one of our local news anchors when I was a bouncer, and it didn't click who she was till I asked for a id. She was super nice, and we chatted for a few minutes. As I was getting her a voucher for a free ride home. A few days later. I was walking in to the gym as she was leaving, and she looked at me like she has seen me before. 

[Petra Jane]

Unfortunately, I am now unable to remember very clearly those famous people I have met, I know I met some of the Grumblweeds (a UK band in the 80’s), local personalities but the person who made the most lasting impression on me was the team leader of the Stoke team when I was hospitalised following a couple of strokes.

she helped me come to terms with the way my life changed, having survived two strokes, her words, survived the weekend when the nurses didn’t think I was going to make it, and giving me the support I needed to not just survive but improve my life and my health afterwards.

It was a delight to be able to return a few years later, meet her, and thank her for her support, and to be honest, show how much improved I was from the day I was discharged.

[Heather Shay]

@Red_Lauren. I love hearing about good memories thank you.

 

@Petra Jane what a refreshing and inspiring story. I am so glad you recovered and prospered from the meeting of another kind person.