In no particular order, who are the five most famous people you've met?

[kphoger]

Karl Urban
Michael Rooker
Sean Gunn
Ming-Na Wen
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kyle MacLachlan
Peter Weller

Who?  Never heard of 'em.

[Rothman]

Karl Urban
Michael Rooker
Sean Gunn
Ming-Na Wen
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kyle MacLachlan
Peter Weller

Who?  Never heard of 'em.

Right, but I think we've established that you live under a rock more than a few times here.

[kphoger]

a rock

Well, I have heard of Dwayne Johnson...

[Scott5114]

Karl Urban
Michael Rooker
Sean Gunn
Ming-Na Wen
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kyle MacLachlan
Peter Weller

Who?  Never heard of 'em.

Right, but I think we've established that you live under a rock more than a few times here.

I have no idea who any of these people are either.

[wxfree]

Karl Urban
Michael Rooker
Sean Gunn
Ming-Na Wen
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kyle MacLachlan
Peter Weller

Who?  Never heard of 'em.

Right, but I think we've established that you live under a rock more than a few times here.

I have no idea who any of these people are either.

Star Trek fans will remember Peter Weller saying "Terra Prime, forever."

Kyle MacLachlan was Special Agent Dale Cooper.

Minor thing that bothers me: does the FBI have any regular agents?  If they're all special, doesn't that mean that none of them is actually special?

[Scott5114]

Star Trek fans will remember Peter Weller saying "Terra Prime, forever."

I'm a Star Trek fan and I don't remember that quote. I looked it up and apparently it was from one of the movies made after Star Trek stopped being Star Trek. (I haven't seen anything after Enterprise.)

Kyle MacLachlan was Special Agent Dale Cooper.

Who?

Minor thing that bothers me: does the FBI have any regular agents?  If they're all special, doesn't that mean that none of them is actually special?

Every Special Agent is special in their own unique way.

[Max Rockatansky]

Peter Weller was RoboCop.

Kyle MacLachlan is the guy who is a crap ton of David Lynch productions (Blue Velvet being a favorite of mine).

Ming-Na Wen played Chun Li in the so bad it's good version of Street Fighter.  I had a poster of her in my room, she was kind of the mid-1990s hot female Asian actress.

Michael Rooker is mostly known now for the Guardians of the Galaxy but was in a lot of early 1990s action movies. 

Karl Urban is Bill the Butcher in The Boys and was Judge Dredd in the good Dredd movie.

Sean Gunn is also from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Jamie Campbell Bower is Vecna on Stranger Things.

[wxfree]

Star Trek fans will remember Peter Weller saying "Terra Prime, forever."

I'm a Star Trek fan and I don't remember that quote. I looked it up and apparently it was from one of the movies made after Star Trek stopped being Star Trek. (I haven't seen anything after Enterprise.)

That was in Enterprise.  He was John Frederick Paxton, the xenophobic interplanetary terrorist who made a half-human half-Vulcan baby and threatened to shoot Earth with a giant laser if the aliens didn't leave.

Kyle MacLachlan was Special Agent Dale Cooper.

Who?

The agent who investigated the murder of Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks, and found a gateway to a different side of reality.

Minor thing that bothers me: does the FBI have any regular agents?  If they're all special, doesn't that mean that none of them is actually special?

Every Special Agent is special in their own unique way.

That brings up a good point.  I suppose the only way to be truly special is in a unique way.  You can't be special the same way everyone else is.  That opens up the label to everyone.

[kphoger]

I might be a fan of a show, but that still doesn't mean I know the actors by name.

[achilles765]

This is a fun one—I've been a bartender/server for 20 years and have encountered quite a few especially when I lived in New Orleans. Let me think...my top 5...
1. President George HW and Barbara bush.  Super nice people.
2. Queen Latifah
3. Ken Jennings (when I was on jeopardy)
4. Scott Bakula, CCH pounder, the other cast of NCIS New Orleans
5. John Goodman

[gonealookin]

I guess I have a few.

George Akerlof, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics.  I took an 8-student seminar with him for a semester as a senior at UC Berkeley.  Akerlof's wife was then and is now Janet Yellen, who was named Chairman of the Federal Reserve by President Obama and was President Biden's Secretary of the Treasury.  She also taught at Berkeley when I was a student but I don't recall meeting her.

Adam Firestone of Firestone Walker Brewing was a high school classmate.  Their 805 Ale is on tap all over the place.  Adam founded the brewery and eventually sold his interest to Belgium's Duvel, no doubt for a gazillion dollars.  Adam's father, Brooks Firestone, whom I did meet, had a winery in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County and represented that district in the California legislature for a few terms. At their house I also met Adam's little brother Andrew (would have been around 3 years old at the time), and had a good laugh many years later when Andrew was on the TV show "The Bachelor".

At PGA Tour events you're within whispering distance of the players, if you don't follow the stars.  My favorite guy is Peter Malnati, whose name those who don't follow golf wouldn't recognize, but he's played in over 300 PGA Tour tournaments, has won twice and has over $10 million in career earnings on tour.  Really nice person, very outgoing with a great attitude on the course.  Journeymen like that appreciate having fans following them regularly, and recently he called me over at the end of a round and asked for my e-mail, because he wanted to offer tickets out of his allotment any time I want to show up.  That's very nice of him, as tickets for one person for four days are usually +/- $300.  I'm not a pen pal or anything, but we've had a nice chat via e-mail.

Anyone ever meet famous people in seemingly random or odd places?

Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense under JFK and LBJ (and major architect of the disastrous Vietnam policy).  Later, he was President of the World Bank and I sat between him and my mom for a couple hours on a plane trip in South America.  (The President of the World Bank flew coach with the rest of us peons.)

I was in Powell's Books, the well-known independent book store in Portland, Oregon, and Graham Nash was in the register line with me.  Probably 15 or so years ago, as David Crosby was still alive (and getting along with Nash, which became a problem later), and Crosby, Stills and Nash were playing somewhere in Portland that night.  I don't remember what Graham was buying.

Mark Mulder and Eric Chavez were ballplayers for the Oakland A's in the early 2000s.  As young, unmarried players they were sharing a house.  I saw them in Target one day, so naturally I got in the checkout line behind them to see what they were buying.  The notable thing was a whole bunch of Glade scented candles, which you might light to make the place smell nice when you had chicks over.   

[Rothman]

Karl Urban
Michael Rooker
Sean Gunn
Ming-Na Wen
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kyle MacLachlan
Peter Weller

Who?  Never heard of 'em.

Right, but I think we've established that you live under a rock more than a few times here.

I have no idea who any of these people are either.

So, you and kphoger are roommates.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I know who Karl Urban is, but probably only because he was McCoy in the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies.

[Rothman]

I know who Karl Urban is, but probably only because he was McCoy in the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies.

Eomer in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings...

[Max Rockatansky]

Some of you folks are really disappointing me with all these Star Trek references. 

[kphoger]

I have no idea who any of these people are either.

So, you and kphoger are roommates.

Yes, we share a rock together.  His half is in Nevada, mine is in Kansas.

[kkt]

Star Trek fans will remember Peter Weller saying "Terra Prime, forever."

I'm a Star Trek fan and I don't remember that quote. I looked it up and apparently it was from one of the movies made after Star Trek stopped being Star Trek. (I haven't seen anything after Enterprise.)

Kyle MacLachlan was Special Agent Dale Cooper.

Who?

Minor thing that bothers me: does the FBI have any regular agents?  If they're all special, doesn't that mean that none of them is actually special?

Every Special Agent is special in their own unique way.

Is there room under your rock?  I haven't heard of any of those guys either.  I didn't even watch Enterprise, but ask me about TOS or DS9...

[MikeTheActuary]

My list:
1.  Dee Snider (who is responsible for my username; I was a "peep" when he was doing morning radio in Hartford)
2.  George Wendt (chatted with him for a minute while waiting for a valet to bring my car, after a matinee of Hairspray)
3.  Al Gore (interrupted an AP exam when visiting my high school)
4.  Arnold Schwarzenegger (in front of me in line for breakfast at a restaurant in Westwood)
5.  Linus Torvalds (partied with him in college, when he visited the US, in the Linux 0.95 days)
6.  Alex Trebek (Jeopardy Teen Tournament audition)

[CoreySamson]

I actually met Craig Keener (premier Pentecostal scholar) earlier today, so this thread comes at an auspicious time. Probably in the top 3 most famous people that I've ever met. The others that would round out my top three are William Wilson (my college president) and Jonathan Stockstill (megachurch pastor in Baton Rouge). That is, unless you count that time I almost met Jeremy Lin.

[kkt]

My list:
1.  Dee Snider (who is responsible for my username; I was a "peep" when he was doing morning radio in Hartford)
2.  George Wendt (chatted with him for a minute while waiting for a valet to bring my car, after a matinee of Hairspray)
3.  Al Gore (interrupted an AP exam when visiting my high school)
4.  Arnold Schwarzenegger (in front of me in line for breakfast at a restaurant in Westwood)
5.  Linus Torvalds (partied with him in college, when he visited the US, in the Linux 0.95 days)
6.  Alex Trebek (Jeopardy Teen Tournament audition)

Wow.  They interrupted your AP exam just because a guy who once in a while can break a tie vote in the Senate was visiting?  Messed up priorities.

[Molandfreak]

My list:
1.  Dee Snider (who is responsible for my username; I was a "peep" when he was doing morning radio in Hartford)
2.  George Wendt (chatted with him for a minute while waiting for a valet to bring my car, after a matinee of Hairspray)
3.  Al Gore (interrupted an AP exam when visiting my high school)
4.  Arnold Schwarzenegger (in front of me in line for breakfast at a restaurant in Westwood)
5.  Linus Torvalds (partied with him in college, when he visited the US, in the Linux 0.95 days)
6.  Alex Trebek (Jeopardy Teen Tournament audition)

Wow.  They interrupted your AP exam just because a guy who once in a while can break a tie vote in the Senate was visiting?  Messed up priorities.

He was still able to become an actuary, so was anything really lost due to the interruption?

[MikeTheActuary]

My list:
1.  Dee Snider (who is responsible for my username; I was a "peep" when he was doing morning radio in Hartford)
2.  George Wendt (chatted with him for a minute while waiting for a valet to bring my car, after a matinee of Hairspray)
3.  Al Gore (interrupted an AP exam when visiting my high school)
4.  Arnold Schwarzenegger (in front of me in line for breakfast at a restaurant in Westwood)
5.  Linus Torvalds (partied with him in college, when he visited the US, in the Linux 0.95 days)
6.  Alex Trebek (Jeopardy Teen Tournament audition)

Wow.  They interrupted your AP exam just because a guy who once in a while can break a tie vote in the Senate was visiting?  Messed up priorities.

He was still able to become an actuary, so was anything really lost due to the interruption?

It was the AP English exam, not Calculus BC fortunately, and this was when he was senator and Tipper Gore was being annoying.

My high school (a public school in a system that had issues) had been in headlines for being "best in the southeast" based on number of National Merit semifinalists, and the senator wanted to look in on some of the nerds.

[Scott5114]

Linus Torvalds (partied with him in college, when he visited the US, in the Linux 0.95 days)

What is partying with Linus like?

[MikeTheActuary]

Linus Torvalds (partied with him in college, when he visited the US, in the Linux 0.95 days)

What is partying with Linus like?

I was annoyed because the female linguistics student I was there with was more interested in practicing her Finnish....

[kphoger]

What is partying with Linus like?

Like a LAN party, but without the games?