My wife and I went out to lunch one day at a local café (kind of a high end, yuppie place with GREAT food). The café was almost completely empty. A man was standing at the counter talking to one of the owners. As I was taking off my jacket, the man talking turned and looked at me. The man was the actor Brian Dennehy. Being a fan of his I raised my right hand and started to say "hey" as if we were friends who hadn't seen each other in ages.
He looked at me like, "Who the hell are you?"
I was completely embarrassed, looked down, and quickly took my seat at the table. I felt like a real putz.
After our meal, my wife went to use the ladies room. Mr. Dennehy finished his conversation with the owner and then went to leave. I watched him as he was going. He grabbed the door handle to the cafe's front door, started to open it, shook his head, closed the door, and then turned and walked right up to me and said, "How's it going?"
We talked very briefly. I apologized for acting so familiar, but he understood I was just reacting and appreciated the fact that I let him have his conversation with the owner uninterrupted.
He lives locally in my area of CT, and I've seen him several times since. Now we just smile at each other and say, "How's it going?"
Now, as far as saying something to Mr. Craig (in a perfect world where I didn't get flustered, embarrassed, tongue tied, etc.) I would have asked him about his wife's latest acting projects, what it's like to be married to a famous actress, etc. I think he would appreciate that.
