76 Comments

Excellent game: Here's my five: Meryl Streep, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, Tom Hanks, and Walter Cronkite.

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I wish I'd met Lillian Gish! Here's my list:

Robert Frost

Jack Lemmon

Sylvia Sydney

Neil Simon

Bette Davis

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Feb 7, 2022Liked by Ty Burr

You can probably guess my age, too! Roger Mudd, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Ulrich, Mary Martin and John Updike.

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Mine: Ed Begley, Jr., Johnny Crawford (of Rifleman fame), Natalie Wood, Mel Blanc, Ed Begley, Sr.

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Quite a game. My list:

1. JFK (at the Cross Catholic Church in Hyannis where he politically ushered as a budding senator)

2. Alfred Hitchcock (at a restaurant urinal after the Boston premier of his 50th film Topaz.

3. Tom Brady (at the local Boys' and Girls' Club during his 1st season)

4. Adam Sandler (in an elevator after escorting a tour of Rockefeller Plaza)

5. Richard Jaeckel (in Harvard Square whom I stopped and said, "You are Richard Jaekel!)

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Here's mine:Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Al Pacino, George H.W. Bush, Jane Fonda

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Thank you for resharing your article on Ike Turner, if written by another I would surely have passed it bye. I’m somewhat skeptical of redemption stories, but glad that he got his head on straight. Time passes and people do change. And if true: Turner insists.

“I don’t see no hill. The only worry I have is how can I get the right guys so I can sound good onstage. My worries aren’t about bills or money. Used to be. But I don’t have any of those problems. “I’m just free.”

Well then he ended up pretty lucky, but I wonder if “free” is refusing to acknowledge his past?

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Ok I’ll play: Ted Williams, Red Auerbach, George Wills, Julia Childs and Bill Clinton

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Feb 7, 2022·edited Feb 7, 2022

Mel Brooks - elevater weather chit chat, Manhattan, 101 F day, he said Oh my god! when I explained I had travelled from Staten Island.

Cynthia Nixon - On a trampoline in Maine whilst seeing our kids perform at summer camp.

Joan Crawford - I was 16 or so- She came up my driveway in a car to pick up her grandchildren I had babysat during a wedding in Ithaca NY. Nice Grandma!

Neil deGrasse Tyson- He responded and came to a small art exhibition re: scientists I curated on Staten Island-He was the one tof the subjects of a portrait. The ladies in attendance where enthused. 2 years later on the steps of the Public Theatre I ambused him- after he had slept through most of Henry V.

Dolly Parton - I saw her in an airport and almost fainted. She chuckeled when I begged her to run for President

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Not often, but yes ... a couple times. Highlight of my rides!

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Feb 7, 2022Liked by Ty Burr

Thanks for your article on Lillian Gish and Ike! I loved all the clips and photos. And I love everyone's stories about the people they've met.

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I thought about tweeting it, but I was too lazy yesterday. So this is even better. Here's my five: Teddy Kennedy, Anita Bryant, Colonel Sanders, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama

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Feb 8, 2022·edited Feb 8, 2022

My five:

Julia Child

Jim Plunkett

Al Pacino

Bob Gibson

Kate Moss

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My list:

Gene Simmons

Elvis Costello

Stephen Stills

Roger Hodgeson

Cyndi Lauper

Robert MacNeil

Carly Simon

Jackie Chan

(more than five for additional confusion!)

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Ty Burr

Andrew Sarris

Pauline Kael

Glenn Close

Meryl Streep

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Fantastic deep dive on the devilish, complicated and undeniably influential Ike. The fact that EW gave you a 3-day ‘budget’ for that 2001 story says a lot about how the fortunes of the magazine industry have changed as well as how cool your editor there was!

Here’s my 5: Teddy Kennedy, Tom Brady, Tina Turner, Jennifer Lawrence. (OK, that’s only 4 but who cares.)

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