Brushes with Fame

One of the perks of having a son who is a professional animator is that you occasionally get notes like this:

I have a friend who does animation/vfx work, been in the biz since the 90s. Saw him last night and he dropped a bomb on me: he not only animated on Babylon 5, he was IN AN EPISODE! That’s him. Hahaha! Basically Hollywood royalty. This is their big farewell speech. They put all the Vfx crew and other off-camera people in as a thank you at the end of the season. Also he pointed out that some of the main cast were there as humans, out of alien makeup. He was standing between Londo and G’Kar in human form. Haha!

I replied: I feel like I’ve moved a few degrees closer to Kevin Bacon!

He answered: “Absolutely. You’re now two from Harlan Ellison and JMS himself.”

I can actually feel myself growing in dignity and significance as we speak!

I’ve met a few famous people in my life. I’ve met and know a lot of the famous Catholic ones cuz of my work, but that’s a fairly rarefied niche.

(One of the funniest experiences of my life was going to Franciscan University in Steubenville for some conference or other 25 years ago and having everybody on campus all know who I was and greet me like I was famous–and then walking off the campus and back into utter and total obscurity. I realized suddenly that somebody in the world is the World’s Most Famous Collector of Luxembourg Postage Stamps, or Greatest Siamese Fighting Fish Breeder or the Most Celebrated Expert on Gutters on Planet Earth and that at a certain time on a certain day, that person walks into a certain hotel conference room and all the women flush with excitement, all the men feel their manhood challenged, and the entire room is electric with excitement because He Has Arrived! Then he returns to life as a parking lot attendant or bridge inspector and the brief glamour is over–until the next hyper-rarified gathering.)

I’ve also met a few people who are actually famous, as in known outside the Catholic bubble. For instance, I once stood in line next to Tom Skerritt at a graduation ceremony at Seattle University (my friend Sherry Weddell was getting her Masters).

I once shook hands with Jimmy Carter at a mock political convention in Portland in 1976 (I was in high school).

I once got to ask Stephen Tobolowsky a question, if memory serves. He’s the guy who played Ned Ryerson in GROUNDHOG DAY.

I have a letter from Jimmy Stewart that I arranged for my wife’s Christmas present in 1987.

i suspect there are other famous people I’ve crossed paths with, but nothing is coming to mind.

If you have an Encounter with Fame you’d like to share, by all means put it in the combox below.