50 Fans Share Their Interactions With The Most Famous People They Ever Met

King Charles III (he was Prince Charles at the time).

He came to the small town I lived in. I was there with the Girl Guides. Another Guide before me had been selected to give him cookies. When he got to me, as he shook my hand, he sort of leaned in conspiratorially and asked me if the cookies were “any good”. Being 7 or 8, I answered candidly that “those ones [sandwich cookies] are but the mint ones aren’t.”.

I feel like this isn’t the most famous person, but last month David Byrne of the Talking Heads sat at the bar I work at and I took care of him! He was playing a show the next night, and he drank our Malbec. I think he ordered our rabbit, lol, I don’t remember honestly. I was very excited to be taking care of him though. A neat experience.

I was in a scene with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. I was in the background, but got to meet Mr. Hanks before the scene.

Jensen Ackles. Worked as a bar back and I was taking the trash out and some dudes were in the way and he told them to move for me. Class act.

Jake Gyllenhaal—didn’t quite meet him but was walking down the street in London and he was coming from the other direction. I whispered to my friend “I think that’s Jake Gyllenhaal” and my friend—who was riled up about something totally unrelated and in the middle of a story shouts “I don’t give a frick about Jake Gyllenhaal!” He looked very startled as he passed us. Needless to say, I did not ask for a picture.

I was in one of Taylor Swift’s secret sessions for 1989. Got to hang in her NYC place, hold her cats and one of her Grammys, listen to the album early, the whole shebang.

People question if she’s nice or not but if it’s an act she didn’t let on not once even for a second. She was genuinely just a really nice person.

Around the year 2000 I was at a festival in Ireland. I always like to stand in from of the sound rig so I can see the whole stage. During Becks set I noticed that people kept turning around and smiling at me. This happened more and more until I was incredibly confused. I looked behind me in case I was missing something but nothing was going on. I did a full 360 on the spot but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then the lady on my left nudged me and said "I think they're looking at me." I asked her why she thought that and she said that she was here with Beck but wanted to see the show from the crowd. We chatted for a bit between songs and after a while she said her goodbyes, shook my hand and headed off to go backstage again with this big tall fella.
I was telling some friends about it later on that day and they said "you know that was Winona Ryder, right!?"
Well, I do now.

Micky Dolenz of the Monkees. I spent about 30 minutes talking with him. Turned out he’s very interested in learning about particle physics. I made a point of asking him no questions about music. I asked what were his interests outside of music.

There’s a lovely story about Bono. He was in a bar in Dublin with his friend and went to the bathroom. A U2 fan was also in the bar and really wanted to meet him, so went up the friend while Bono was in the toilet and asked if Bono would be cool with a photo etc. The friend said he’d ask him. When Bono came back his friend spoke with him and indicated that the fan should come over. Bono did the photo thing etc and introduced his friend to the fan. Bono’s friend was Bruce Springsteen!!

Linda Ronstadt sang at my uncle's wedding.

Joan Jett, after a concert. She told me she liked my t-shirt, and I told her I made it. Then she signed it. I was 16 and so stoked.

Magic Johnson. He high fived me in an Ihop while passing by our table. I was 7 years old, and his thumb was bigger than my entire hand.

It's hard to parse. Steve McQueen, Leonard Nimoy, Stan Laurel, and Victor Mature all come to mind, but they were all variously famous at different times and places for different things. I mean, I met Count Basie once too, and Milt Jackson used to be almost a local in Hermosa Beach when I was getting into jazz. But these were all people I only met momentarily, or in a context that makes the relationship meaningless (like Leonard Nimoy, who happened to chant at the same Nichiren Shoshu temples as I did -- one in Hermosa beach, and one in Santa Monica.)

But the one I had the most interaction with was Pharaoh Sanders. He was an awesome man, with a lovely soul.

Michelle Pfeiffer. My spouse used to work for her when she lived in Northern California with her equally famous husband, David E. Kelly. We’d attend their Christmas parties. She was amazing! So giving and lovely to be around. She was so easy to talk to. A true gem of a person. We’re both Tauruses and got along so well. She even attended our wedding with her kids.

The Dalai Lama visited our school in the 90s.

I met Paul Giamatti on a bullet train in Japan, sitting in the row ahead. I hadn't seen many of his movies at the time and asked "if he was in some form of mass media?" lol ironically he mentioned he likes travelling to Japan as he is less recognisable.

Nice and genuine bloke 👍.

My mom was a songwriter and manager for a musician. Through her I met nearly every Latin music star from the 80s and 90s.

One of my cousins was in the Buena Vista Social Club.

I met Liam Gallagher in my local pub. He was really nice.

Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Peter Jennings ... Lots of famous authors. My mom used to work at the main Barnes and Noble at our city. When the authors would come for book signings I would get to meet them before the store opened.

Barack Obama, on his '04 IL Senate campaign.