I am a freelance scenic artist (I paint scenery for theatrical stage productions.) In the fall of 2010, I was working on a production at a local university, a few of us painters were painting a backdrop for a Shakespeare show. Into the paint shop walks the Head of the Drama school with a friend whom I do not recognize. He is giving his friend a tour of the building. Head of the Drama school walks over an introduces his friend to us. His friend? Anthony Daniels–known for his role at C-3PO! Mr. Daniels then compliments our work and goes on to say that the painted scenery on the set of Star Wars was rather dull–a lot of grey We all had a good laugh, the two men walked out of the paint shop, and we all looked at each other stunned that we just randomly met a Sci-Fi legend!
Anthony Daniels is amazing! He was emceeing the Dragon*Con Masquerade in 2001, and one of the entrants was a young girl…I’m guessing about 7 or 8?…dressed in the black Amidala outfit from Phantom Menace. Fantastic costume.
Anyhoo, she took two steps onto the stage and completely froze; DCon is HUGE, and there must’ve been thousands of people in that ballroom. Everyone starts cheering encouragement, which I think freaked her out even more, then finally Anthony told us all very firmly to “QUIET DOWN.” He then proceeded to speak to the young lady…in full character as C3PO, calling her “Your Highness.”
It immediately calmed her down and by the time she went through her whole walk-and-spin, she had a big smile on her face.
And Anthony didn’t break character once. It was so cool to see and cemented him as one of the “almost too good to be real” guys.
Back during the early-mid 70’s, my dad met Billy Joel a couple’a times, and hung out a bit. Those were one of the times when my dad treated celebrities like normal people.
I once got to meet Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 2012. She is the woman who, despite her advisor taking credit for it, actually discovered pulsars. I was SO ecstatic.
Leaving off the “meeting a musician signing stuff at the merch table after the show” type stuff…
Pat Rothfuss. First of all, we live in the same town, so I had seen him around before. But one night we were at a harvest party for the farm we have gotten our CSA from for over a decade now. Pat was there with his sons. The wife and I spent a bunch of time grinding apples for cider with him. Other than a low-key acknowledgement of “who” he was, we talked about other random stuff, not his books.
And one from the “celebrity adjacent” file. Back in 2003 when the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup, Brian Rafalski brought it to a golf course about 20 minutes east of here, and the wife and I went to see it. Well, I went to see the Cup, she went to be a supportive wife. Brian’s wife is from the area and they had a summer home on one of the lakes over there. While we were waiting in line, he brought brought in the Cup with some family members. One of the people who came in with him looked an awful lot like a friend of ours from college, but we figured it couldn’t be her, because why would it be - there was no connection (that we knew of). The event was being done as a fundraiser for a local kid with some illness (I don’t remember what anymore). We figured this person who looked like our friend Wendy must just be part of the sick girl’s family or something. So, after we were waiting in line a while (and still a ways back), this person comes over and says “I thought that was you guys!” Turns out it was our friend Wendy and she was married to Rafalski’s brother.
My dad and I each had a brush with semi-celebrity, or celebrities in their own industries:
I didn’t get to personally meet him, but my dad was a service manager for a company that produces and services those ticket machines at airports. One of his techs was the former touring manager for the Georgia Satellites in the 80’s and was still friends with the band even then.
One weekend at an Atlanta music festival my dad got to meet the original band members. When I was cleaning out his house last year I came across the picture he had above the living room TV with him, the touring manager and one of the band member. I don’t know which member of the band he met, but it shows how much of a small world it is.
On a personal note, I briefly met Jim Cramer from Mad Money about a year before he started the show and he was just a frequent guest on CNBC shows. Met him on Labor Day Weekend at a rest stop in Maryland at the Roy Rogers soda machine. I personally think my dad’s meeting a (kinda) celebrity is better.
Mr. Daniels then compliments our work and goes on to say that the painted scenery on the set of Star Wars was rather dull–a lot of grey 
We all had a good laugh, the two men walked out of the paint shop, and we all looked at each other stunned that we just randomly met a Sci-Fi legend!
I was SO ecstatic.
