By Kevin S. Giles

Soon after Dances With Wolves won Best Picture, as I drank beer in a Tucson hotel with fellow newspaper editors, a man watching fish in the nearby aquarium caught our attention. I recognized him even without the feathers.

He resembled Graham Greene, who played Kicking Bird in Kevin Costner’s epic. That very moment, Beau Bridges walked past with a woman on each arm. He wore a tuxedo. I went to the front desk to claim my room. A tall silver-haired man stood next to me. He was Lloyd Bridges, dad to Beau and Jeff, and star of Sea Hunt, a 1960s TV drama I watched in boyhood. Minutes later, I went to the elevator.

“Hold the door!” someone called. In walked Terrance Knox, an actor from TV’s St. Elsewhere and a subsequent Vietnam war drama, Tour of Duty. He stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Terry,” he greeted me. Being face to face with the TV doctor who became a serial rapist in the basement morgue of the St. Eligius hospital (the actual name of St. Elsewhere) gave me pause.

Outside the next morning, I saw several cowboy actors from 1960s TV westerns, all older but recognizable.

It was a celebrity tennis tournament, they said. I went about my business.

when I wrote about movie actors

Alex Cord and Lana Wood starred in Grayeagle, a movie about a white woman abducted by Indians. She is the sister of Natalie Wood. (Movie publicity photo)

Over the years, my newspaper work led to other celebrity encounters. I wrote about Jack Elam, Ben Johnson and Lana Wood during filming for the movie Grayeagle. I spent an afternoon drinking whiskey with Jack, a veteran cowboy actor, while he told behind-the-scenes stories of his movies. I drove Ben to dinner at a steakhouse where, as we sipped tall mugs of beer, he described filming The Last Picture Show for which he won Best Supporting Actor. Lana was best known for being Hollywood darling Natalie Wood’s younger sister. We took our young daughter Heather to play with Lana’s daughter, who was growing bored in the hotel.

Order Kevin's books now and receive a 10% discount by entering code "SaveOnKevinsBooks"

I also wrote about an attempted interview with four-star General Omar Bradley in a radon mine in Montana. During World War II, Bradley commanded 1.3 million US soldiers.

Curiosity led me to recalling other encounters with famous people. Some were newspaper interviews. Some amounted to nothing more than sightings. Few journalists (including me) ask well-known people for autographs and other favors.

Not on the job.

my brushes with fame

Other people might have fuller, more impressive lists, but here’s mine:

Peter Nero: I interviewed the famed pianist in Australia when I was a newspaper reporter. In those days, long before the internet, interviewing an accomplished international musician with precious little background preparation wasn’t for the faint of heart. And yes, I should have taken piano lessons as my mother implored.

Gina Lollobrigida: The European actress and “international sex symbol,” as the celebrity media anointed her, wowed a ballroom packed with Italians who lived in Australia. My assigning editor at the newspaper expected me to get a story about her splashy event. Because of the crush of people, I couldn’t get close. The microphone Gina used didn’t work. My head cold laid me so low I wanted to curl in a corner and sleep.

No story. My editor wasn’t happy.

Carlos Santana: We attended a concert where people obeyed instructions to stay in their seats — until the encore. Becky and I sat at the back of the auditorium near the top. I told her I wanted to photograph the famous Latin guitarist up close. Holding my Mamiya-Sekor camera and assorted lenses conspicuously, as if I had some professional privilege, I walked past security guards into the empty 10-foot chasm between the stage and first row of spectators. Santana rocked above me. I clicked away as his fingers flew on the fretboard. I could have grabbed his trousers. I was that close.

Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy: Twice I shook hands with the younger brother of President John Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s. The first time came at the Civic Center in Butte, Montana. I went to hear him speak with three or four high school classmates. When Kennedy finished he left the arena through a tunnel directly below us. My friends dangled me, holding my legs, as I held out my hand and yelled, “Teddy!” He reached up and shook my hand like he meant it. The second time came at a ceremony in the State Capitol in Helena, Montana. I told him of our Butte encounter. “Nice to see you today,” he said. His hand was soft yet he had a firm grip.

A.B. “Bud” Guthrie: I sat next to the prolific western author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, at a book signing in Missoula, Montana. I wrote about this crazy night in a separate story on my website.

President George H.W. Bush: What I recall most was the dignity of his demeanor. He spoke outside the State Capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota, soon after being elected in 1988. I took our three daughters to see him. We stood behind a snow fence a few dozen feet away. I don’t recall metal detectors or that he was speaking from behind a shield. It seemed so — casual.

Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva: My fascination with these professional baseball players began in 1964 when my grandfather taught me his passion for the Minnesota Twins. Killebrew and Oliva played in the 1965 World Series against the Dodgers. The Twins lost the seventh game 2-0. These men remained my childhood heroes. I was a grown man when, living in Minnesota, I met them at a “Twinsfest” winter promotion. Becky and I waited in line for photographs. Both were gracious, kind men and yes, I confessed my childhood admiration.

Zoilo Versalles: He was another World Series player for the Minnesota Twins. Years after he retired, I attended a Twins game in Minneapolis with my dad. Five rows below us, we saw a man with slicked-back dark hair (a Peter Gunn look for those of you who remember) signing autographs. When I got a good look, I knew I was seeing Versalles, the starting shortstop and an American League MVP. When Dad went to the concession stand I hustled down and got him an autograph.

It made Dad’s night.

seeing Mr. caddyshack himself

Bill Murray: I met the Saturday Night Live comedian at a baseball game in Butte, Montana, where Murray was part owner of the Copper Kings semi-pro team. He held court from the upper row of the bleachers behind home plate where he signed autographs. Many of his adoring fans came with VCR cassettes of his earlier movies, Stripes, Caddyshack and Ghostbusters. I had watched his crazy on-screen antics for years. On this day he was a normal guy in a baseball cap.

Jerry Maren: Dedicated viewers of The Wizard of Oz might remember Maren as the green-garbed munchkin of the “Lollipop Guild” who presents the lollipop to Dorothy. We met him at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. At the time he and only two other munchkins survived the original cast of 124. Maren autographed a framed illustration for us. He pulled us close, like we were family, for a photo. Jerry is gone now. They all are.

Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg: On a visit to Arlington Cemetery with Becky and our daughter and son in law, we saw Eastwood inspecting a headstone. He wore a baseball cap and walked with that lanky stride familiar in his movies. Next to him stood Spielberg. After they climbed into a vehicle and left, we went to look at the headstone. It was the grave of Cpl. Rene Gagnon, one of the US Marine Corps flag raisers on Iwo Jima. (In 2019, the Marine Corps said Gagnon had been “misidentified” in the famous photo and that Cpl. Harold Keller was the flag raiser presumed as Gagnon.) Eastwood and Spielberg were filming a scene at the nearby USMC monument for the film, Flags of Our Fathers.

George McGovern: As a news reporter in Minneapolis-St. Paul, I interviewed the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate after a hunger rally where he was keynote speaker. We sat alone on folding chairs after the crowd left. I asked McGovern questions for my story before I disclosed (uncharacteristically) that the first vote I cast for a president was for him. (McGovern lost to Richard Nixon in a landslide only months before Americans began hearing of a scandal known as Watergate.) “I appreciate that, Kevin,” he said. We chatted like two friends sharing stories on the front porch.

Karl Malone: I spotted the professional basketball player in the Salt Lake City airport. He stood miles taller than everyone around him. Intent on getting his autograph, I followed him to a gate where he waited to board a plane. He gushed over a young pretty blonde gal who asked for his autograph. When my turn came, telling him his autograph was for my daughters, he signed his name without a smile. I guess I wasn’t pretty enough.

Walter Mondale: I interviewed the former US senator and vice president for newspaper stories three times, but always on the phone. His days with Jimmy Carter’s presidency were long in the past, but even at 90 years old he continued working for a law firm in downtown Minneapolis. I addressed him as Mr. Mondale and Mr. Vice President. He called me Kevin.

jeannette rankin and my grandfather

A few people I wish I had met, or interviewed, in no favored order:

Jeannette Rankin, legendary suffragist and pacifist, of whom I wrote two biographies, Flight of the Dove and the expanded edition that I retitled One Woman Against War; Jack Kerouac, the 1950s Beat author of On the Road; my paternal grandfather Harvey Giles, who died when my dad was 15; Harry S. Truman, the plain-talking Missourian who became president after FDR died and gave the go-ahead to drop the world’s first atomic bomb; anybody who attended the Woodstock music festival in 1969; any Beatle (we saw Paul perform with his new band Wings a few years after the Beatles broke up); Jesus Christ, to witness first hand what all the fuss is about; and, Sacajawea (also spelled Sakakawea) after she guided the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Finally, for years I lamented missing an interview with Bill Cosby because of a shift change at the newspaper.

No longer.

Receive Kevin's free e-letter! (In return you get his story, 'The Girl Behind the Glass')

Western Montana native Kevin S. Giles wrote the popular prison nonfiction work Jerry’s Riot, the coming-of-age novel Summer of the Black Chevy, and a biography of Montana congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, One Woman Against War, which is an expanded version of his earlier work, “Flight of the Dove.” His new novel, Headline: FIRE! is the third in the Red Maguire series. Masks, Mayhem and Murder is the second. The first is “Mystery of the Purple Roses.” More information is available at https://kevinsgiles.com.