What famous people have you seen IRL?

Like most Londoners, I have shouted "wanker" at boris johnson.

For a few years of my life I had a standing happy hour at a bar in the building I worked in. I was out sipping a beer with my friends, and the trailer park boys walked in!

I'm a huge fan so I was starstruck. Eventually I worked up the nerve to say hello, and they were delightful and funny. Got a quick picture, wished them luck on their show, and I went back to leaving them be. 10/10, would bother again.

Probably the most famous person I've seen in person close up is Steve from Gamers Nexus. He's in my area and I saw him in a bakery I was at once. I didn't speak to him though, didn't want to cause a scene or take up too much of his time, though thinking about it I'm sure he would have been stoked to have a fan say hi. Whoops!

Back in the 90s, I worked for a major record company, and met a LOT of incredibly famous musicians. Most were cool, some were dicks, and some were really really nice.

One of my favorites was Lindsey Buckingham, who has a prickly reputation. After he sang three songs in our conference room with his acoustic guitar (amazing!), he sat to sign autographs for us. I got to him, and said "Lindsey, I meet a lot of people and I never get star struck, but you've been one of my guitar idols forever, and I really am pleased to meet you." He had been going through the motions, but at that he gave me a big genuine smile, and said, "Thats really kind of you, man, you want to take a picture?" He hadn't taken a pic with anyone else.

Of course I said yes, and sat next to him. He threw his arm around me, and I have cherished that photo, with both of us with big wide grins, ever since.

I've always heard he was a real asshole, but he was nothing but genuinely really cool to me in the 3 minutes we interacted.

The entire Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers teams, Oprah, Michael Jordan, at least a dozen fortune 500 CEO’s, and former President Bush.

The most notable person for their behavior was MJ. That guy is 110% asshole.

Most of the other athletes were pretty cool. We would talk about all kinds of things, not just sports.

Oprah did not give me a car and I was bummed about that but she was pleasant otherwise.

All CEO’s were assholes except Mark Cuban. There is something about the personality of a person that is a CEO that I despise. IMO they are subhuman.

Bush was a husk. His eyes looked as if there was not a thought in his head. When someone talked to him he seemed surprised. Like he was not fully aware of where he was.

There are many more but these were the most notable.

You know that thing where two people, on opposite sides of a door, try to turn the handle and open the door at the same time? I did that with Bob Hope. Later that day I was playing foosball with some kids and their aunt, Bonnie Raitt, came over to talk to them. I was a stage hand for a relief concert.

Stumbled upon Jeremy Clarkson biking in a European capital. We instinctively approached him to just confirm if he was us, and he politely asked to not bother him because he was on holidays. We felt a little bad and of course left him alone. It must be a little sad to be famous and be recognized everywhere

I once saw footballer John Barnes at a nightclub! I asked if he'd mind posing for a photo, he was so nice about it and got it done really quickly. He was obviously practiced. It was a really nice interaction he didn't have to do.

I saw Tom Green at a ski resort in Colorado sometime around 2005. We yelled at him from the lift, and he looked up at us then sped off down the hill.

In Toronto I ran into Styx at the airport.

I mean it literally. I bounced off Tommy Shaw and kind of reeled into James Young. (Totally my fault.)

They were actually really nice, checking if I was OK and once it clicked who I was talking to, putting up with my squeeing fangurl behaviour. Both of us were waiting for our respective flights so I got to talk with them a good half-hour before my flight started boarding.

I met Bruce Campbell at a book signing about 23 years ago. He was just as charming and funny in person as the characters he played. Very friendly and willing to talk for a bit with each fan. A real stand up guy all around.

Only a few porn stars. And Katie from Kinky Katie Radio. They are regular people just like anyone else.

Bob Vila from This Old House was in front of me in a Dunkin Donuts when I was a kid. My dad was a carpenter and we used to watch that show all the time. I pointed out who was in front of us and my dad replied “yeah, he’s an asshole” lmao. I guess he met him once and he was rude as fuck.

Been to tons of concerts too. My friend and I met the band Goblin at a small show once. They walked around and chatted with people after their set. Super nice Italian guys in their 60s and 70s. When they came to the US to tour, they didn’t bring any instruments because it was too much of a pain with customs. So they bought all of their equipment used and then practiced on it in a local studio to get things tuned and ready. Pretty cool move.

I didn’t actually meet him but one time back in the Warped Tour days, I saw Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 next to an outdoor stage waiting for their set. I said to my friends “watch this,” walked over like I had backstage access, got stopped by security (as expected) but it garnered enough attention to make Mark look over at me. When he did, I gave him a what’s up nod with a raised eyebrow, and made a kissy face at him in dorky Blink-182 fashion. He shot me back the funniest WTF face. It’s forever ingrained in my head.

Last year – Colin Farrell and Bryan Cranston hanging out at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights! Celebrity sighting in LA, of course lol. They were dressed real casual, one had a baseball cap on, and were being guided by staff. They’re not short but I remember thinking they looked shorter than expected. I saw them on the escalators going the other direction and had to do a double take. It took my brain a few extra seconds to fully process what I was seeing.

I thought, interesting pairing! Looked it up and learned they did the Total Recall (2012) remake together. Evidently they still hang out lol

David Foster Wallace, shook hands and chatted at a book signing.. He was very pleasant, shy-seeming, like you'd expect. RIP!

Philip Seymour Hoffman, shook his hand and chatted briefly, after seeing a play he was in. Oddly similar to DFW: shy, warm, very human. Also RIP!

(I guess, don't shake my hand?)

I've hung out with the Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto, and met Bruce Springsteen. Everybody was super down to earth and chill.

Once I was at a punk festival and chatting with a stranger about which upcoming sets we were excited for, and when this person was unfamiliar with a classic punk band I exclaimed "how can you not know Joan Jett and the Blackhearts?" only to hear that sentence repeated by someone behind me. It was Joan Jett, and I got to hang out on stage with their VIP group during their set.

I used to deliver the newspaper to Chris Farley's parents. I saw him only once when he drove by on his way to their house, but he smiled and waved at me. Another time, I was out early delivering the Sunday paper, and a man jogging by waved to me. It took a bit longer, but I later recognized him as Tommy Thompson, the governor of Wisconsin, and later Health & Human Services secretary for Pres. Bush.

Oddly, his predecessor at HHS was Donna Shalala, who'd been here as chancellor of the university, so I may have seen her around, too. The most famous person that I've seen IRL was Cindy Crawford, but I didn't interact. She walked by in a hallway at the student union, like a totally normal person.

Had a job booking in Apple laptops for repair at some dingy little Apple Authorised Repairer in Nth Sydney.

Told a customer he looked just like that guy Mouse from the Matrix movie.

I have a signed DVD somewhere now hahaha

The whole Manchester United squad in the early 2000’s. My granddad had a good job and an executive box at Old Trafford.

I also served the guy called Dave in the Royal Family (TV) show.

I also had a friend who worked for ITV and went to a party once and loads of TV celebs were there but didn’t really engage with them.

Edit: I keep remembering more. I’ve met Andy Burnham the mayor of Manchester. Plus one of my exes worked at Harvey Nichols as a nail tech and then used to get calls off Amanda Holden to go to her hotel and her nails.

Not sure if this is in the spirit of the question or not but I saw Robert Downey Jr in real life, it was behind a barrier though, I think he was going to an opening of one of his movies. I was walking down the street and looked over because I saw a bunch of people standing behind the barrier and I was like "oh wow that's Robert Downey Jr" and kept going.

John Carpenter was very kind. I turned into an imbecile but he was nice enough to let me do my job.

Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth. He was just really nice, stayed outside after the show for about an hour talking with fans and getting photos.

Randy Bachman. My friend and I were drunk and saw him near a venue he was playing at, and he was kind and patient enough to deal with us and let me take a photo.

Dean (Deaner) from the FUBAR movies and his fake but actually real band Nightseeker. He shook hands with people lined up at the venue and we noticed he had incredibly soft hands. There was a lineup to get photos and I was the last one. When it was my turn he said he was out of time and started the show. At the time I thought it was an asshole move, but looking back it was pretty funny and in-character of him.

I startled Paul F Tompkins at an improv show by bumping into him as we both rounded a corner. We spoke really briefly but he was funny, courteous and we both apologized for startling the other and I laughed at his good joke about it and he politely pretended to laugh at mine.

I saw a Sedin twin (no idea which one) and we gave the guy nod to each other as I biked past. Oh, and last year I saw Rick Tocchet during the playoff run (but he was on the phone and I didn't want to bug the guy.)

The best one was Kyle Wellwood, who was a mediocre but adorable player. But I saw him at a DJ set where he was with some famous ufc guy and together they were with a half dozen women, none of whom were interested in Wellwood who sat around looking jealous and vaguely annoyed.

A whole bunch of musicians, most famously Lady Gaga who was pretty cool (I actually didn't believe it was her at the time, but she had basically gone out of venue to have a couple drinks and soon said venue was slammed and she was whisked off to the side bar (closed that day)). Couple of former KMFDM members (then Slick Idiot) hung out with then-gf and I for a while. Met a number of famous golfers as well, but was too young to really remember/care.

If "seen" in close proximity is your only criteria, Bill Clinton, Shinzo Abe, a bunch of more minor politicians, a handful of actors, etc.

I had a fairly random life.

I’ve met a bunch of small YouTubers. Fame is completely relative, but within their small circles they are famous. There was a local YouTuber convention, so I decided to try it out. Had it been over 50 km away, I wouldn’t have gone, but I’m glad I did. I listened to some interviews, took fan photos, watched a few on stage shows etc. It was fun.

I've briefly spoken with I think three Nobel prizewinners in chemistry: Lehn, Feringa, Sauvage. Feringa and Sauvage hadn't won when I met them.

I went to a lot of concerts in my life. I don't want to meet them tho.

Not really, but I did manage to meet a (semi-famous) professor that got popular because of his online math lessons on an expo. He isn't that popular even within our country in general, but it's still a flex if you tell it to like an highschool student lmao

If theres any germans here:

Freaking Bruce Darnell casually strolling by me at a main street sidewalk in one of the big NRW cities

Anthony Joshua used to come into my work place often when he was training nearby. Lovely guy, absolute giant.

Met Laura Jane Grace after a show once. She was chill

Cheech Marin at an art show/book signing. He was every bit as affable as I had hoped.

Met G.W. Bailey once at a Houston, won a meet and greet with Charles Martinet and got harassed by a drunken Amy Winehouse in Camden.

That's about it.

I made a big famous dude cry. I sat next to another famous dude and giggled with him at his performance. I once ran into the man I fantasized as The Gunslinger and said nothing.

Some bands when I was young (it used to be much easier to sneak backstage) U2, Warren Zevon, Rush, Tom Petty, all were nice.

Some bands before they were famous, Nirvana came here in their little white van to play at a club and I bought a shirt from them. Would have asked them to sign it if I'd had any idea they would get popular.

Once I was literally being frisked against a wall when the British punk band GBH walked by and they yelled shit at the cops, and encouragement at me, which was an experience that made me question the nature of reality. It was surreal. I didn't meet them, but it certainly made an impression.

One politician, our governor at the time Bob Martinez, when he was working at a restaurant. He looked so fake.

I think all people are just people, basically. Musician, actor, politician, those are just jobs.