My Father was a journalist and growing up in the 60's and 70's, when stars were 'Stars,' I got to meet some pretty interesting people due to the magic of the 'Press Pass...'
...the beauty of that was I got to meet said interesting people when they were being themselves, rather than living up to the publics perception of them, playing to their audience; hence I seem to have a somewhat less jaundiced view of them than some :|
When I met Richard Harris he was by himself, out on his bike and happy to be incognito; he had already played Dumbledore in Harry Potter so no-one recognised him without the long hair and beard, but to me he just looked like an older version of himself when he was 'A Man Called Horse.'
Oliver Reed was at the height of his fame when I bumped into him; at 18 I was taller than him but he was twice as wide as me; when you looked him in the eye it was just plain scary! Decent bloke though
...and I was taller than Ronnie Corbett when I was nine-years-old!
Oh, and in the mid-70's my Mother managed a riding stables on the outskirts of Norwich; William Lucas (Dr Gordon in 'Black Beauty') was playing 'Hamlet' at the Theatre Royal one year and my Mum, being my Mum, rang him up and invited him down to the stables.
He then came round ours for dinner (my Mum cooked homemade pizza when most people had never even heard of it!
) and brought his Staffie with him; he even taught me a tune on my Nans piano...
...to name a few!
