Heartwarming Moments Fans Share Their Most Memorable and Kind Celebrity Encounters

"I was jogging at the San Francisco Marina back in 1988 I think it was and I saw Robin Williams sitting in the side of his van just chillin'. I said, "How you doin' Mr. Williams?" He said, "I'm doing great, you running from the cops?" I laughed and stopped to chat with him for about 5 minutes. He was absolutely delightful. Such a fond memory. I wept when I heard he died."

Tom Hanks at Best Buy. He was in line in front of me with a cart full, all by himself. I was only buying a bottle of water because they didn’t have what I was looking for. I just blurted out” Forest Gump is my favorite movie” like a creep, and he turned around, and said “that was my favorite movie to make! I’m glad you love it.” He then chatted with me while about movies as we stood in line. When it was his turn to check out while they were ringing up his stuff he said “oh let me get that water for you” and paid for my water. He kept talking to me and then we walked out and he said “nice talking to you! You’re a very nice young lady and always remember... life is like a box of chocolates.. you never know what your gonna get” in his Forest Gump voice. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER.

"Jim Carrey gave me a ride to the gas station after my car ran out of gas in Bel Aire. I told him I was a huge fan of Ace Ventura and I could mimic his laugh from the movie. Then we both had our heads out the window cackling away. He bought my gas and drove me back to my car. One of the greatest moments in my life."

"My sister was waiting tables in NYC, and ended up serving Patrick Stewart. She didn't want to bother him, so she just did her job, but at the end of the night she told him how much she had enjoyed seeing him in a production of Hamlet that year (2008), and that she hoped he was planning to do more theater in the US.My sister was prepared to leave it at that, but apparently, he was so thrilled at someone who wanted to talk about his theater work (as opposed to Star Trek), that he ended up talking to my sister for a while about his experiences on stage. Just a really nice guy who loves acting."

"When I was younger, my grandmother and I ran into Robin Williams eating alone in a Whole Foods. We approached him and introduced ourselves and he immediately cleared a space for us to sit and chat with him. I was pretty young at the time, so he spent most of the time trying to make me laugh by doing voices. I may have been too young to truly appreciate it at the time, but looking back I can easily say it's one of the greatest moments of my life and Robin has always had a special spot in my heart because of it."

"Bruce Willis told me that I have "some pretty cool spiderman skills"I was in walmart and there was somethng that i needed on the top shelf and near the back. at the time i was only 5foot (im a bit taller now). and so I scaled up the shelf and over to the side to get the food item that i needed. When i got down i noticed this guy watching me, and i realized it was Bruce Willis. and he complimented my shelf climbing."

"Steve Zahn lives in my city and frequents the gas station I work at. One day he helped a man push his truck onto our lot and then gave the guy a twenty for gas. He talks to everyone like he's known them forever, drives a big pick-up truck, and he's always smiling.Another story about him- one day while driving home my mom stopped to help an old man who had fallen out of his wheelchair at the end of his driveway. She's tiny and was struggling. Steve pulls up, hops out of his truck, helps her, they high-five, and he gets back in his truck and leaves.I like to think Steve Zahn is just cruising around all day looking for people to help."

"Paul and Linda McCartney once came into a restaurant I was hostess at. I greeted him and his wife, led them to their reserved table, said my lines and left. When they were leaving he leaned towards me and thanked me for treating him like a normal person.He knew I knew who he was because Linda had said that she loved my necklace. It was a yellow submarine from the Beatles album."

"Met Bryan Cranston once at the bellagio whilst on holiday in Vegas.... I was a bit fanboyish and blurted..."omg its Heisenberg!"... almost immediately his facial expression went angry... and he walked straight up to me and actually muttered "How dare you call me out like that...if people knew who I was, I wouldn't be in this business... next time you call me out like that be ready for a barrel"... then he smiled and starting laughing and we ended up talking for about 10mins or so about BB.... gave me an autograph.. i was so happy... asked him if he wanted to join a few of us for a drink but he politely declined as he was waiting for his mrs and daughter... cool guy!"

"Hayden Christensen. he came up to my bar. Nice guy really. I acted like I didn't know who he was, and when I gave him his beer I said "May the Force be with you, Ani." and he smiled and said "And also with you". Then he left a huge tip. 🙂 Made my year."

"Renee Zellweger - I served her once when I was honestly having a really shitty day. She had 3 kids in tow, dressed in yoga pants and a tshirt.. nothing about her screamed celebrity and I was focused on other stuff. I messed up twice on her order and she honestly couldn't have been nicer about it "Oh no problem, just bring it when you can, etc etc" Still went out of her way to make small talk.. I only found out who she was when I went to run her credit card and it said "R K Zellweger". Kids all thanked me after the meal and she gave me a hug on the way out and an amazing tip for subpar service. It was a total dream"

"I went to a signing by Tim Burton. The line for him was out the building and around the corner. Everyone was being told that Tim wasn't going to be able to see everyone. I was lucky, I was near the front. We were also told that we could only get an autograph and picture then had to move on.Tim was amazingly nice, and constantly had to be reminded not to shake people's hands and talk with them because he had limited time. He also ended up being late for a private showing of one of his movies (I can't remember which one). He was late because he made sure he saw every single person in line.He was just overall a kind and humble man and very sweet. He even looked over my aspiring animator friend's portfolio and gave her his email, asking her to send him her progress as she improved. A truly great guy."

My grandma met Adam Sandler in an elevator in Mexico. She didn’t speak English but Adam was kind enough to try and speak Spanish with her. She was delighted, she loves his movies.

"Bill Murray and his son came into an inuit art gallery (Eskimo on Madison). The owner and I were the only ones there. Then a UPS delivery person came in and freaked out about seeing Bill Murray on her birthday. Murray had his son pick up her feet and he picked her up under her shoulders and they rocked her back and forth while Murray crooned "happy birthday... to yooooou."After that, I chatted with him a bit and he was super nice."

"I met Marilyn Manson (emo 16-year-old me's hero) and he let me pet his cat while I freaked out about getting to meet him. He's nowhere near as scary in person as his persona or stage character. He's actually very sweet and somewhat shy. He really didn't know how to handle a young girl absolutely bawling tears of joy just from his presence, haha. He also picked up my sister for a picture because we couldn't get both him (roughly 6'2") and my sister (roughly 4"10") together in frame.Overall he's a really chill guy!"

"In 2002 I won a radio contest to see John Mayer play in NYC. Since Im an artist, I made a painting of him in the hopes I might get him to sign it. After the small show, people line up to take pics with him. When I get up to him, he is genuinely nice and immediately starts signing it when his manager comes over and says "No autographs, just pictures!" And John goes, "Dude. She fuckin painted shit" and he finished signing it."

"Barack Obama. Back when he was a huge underdog in the 2008 election, he came to my city for a town hall meeting. Showed genuine interest in people's concerns and shook hands with everyone he could. Class act."

"Margot Robbie. I work at a restaurant in NYC, first time I served here I treated her like a normal person, didn't acknowledge that she was famous or anything like that although she is probably my number one crush of all time. I was really nervous to even talk to her to be quiet honest. Her and her boyfriend were EXTREMELY personable we talked about the rangers for a bit and kind of chit chatted. She paid the bill, left a very generous tip and told me I created an outstanding dining experience and asked if they could talk to my manager. One of the biggest compliment boosts of my life. They come back and I wait on them often, I would nearly consider us friends now as we are on a first name basis."

"Drunk Ron Perlman gave me a hug and took a picture with me outside of an In N Out in LA. He shuffled past me, and I turned to him and said "Hey, are you Ron Perlman? I loved City of Lost Children!" and he replied "...what? Ron Perlman? Yeah, I'm Ron Perlman...Yeahhhh, I AM Ron Perlman!" and we exchanged the aforementioned hug. Nice guy!"

Met Adam Sandler once in a restaurant in NYC. We were out to dinner for a friend's bachelor party, a group of about a dozen guys. Adam stopped by our table and said congrats to the groom-to-be and asked some genuine questions about where we were all from and what we do. He then took a few moments to tell us that he had seen us earlier having fun and laughing together and about how important that is in life, being with friends and laughing and enjoying our time together. Kinda sounds cheesy now but in the moment it was very sincere and meant a lot to us. Overall it was maybe a 5-10 minute interaction but something none of us will ever forget

"Mark Hamill. This was at Celebration (a Star Wars convention) and my boyfriend paid for his autograph, but he called me "sssssmokin". I got hit on by Luke Skywalker. Sniffles I'll never forget you.Seriously, though, he is just lovely."

"Stephen Colbert. I asked him if he could take a picture, and he took my camera and snapped a photo of a tree. I got my photo with him only after he offered to take a picture of just me. Incredibly funny guy!"

"Saw Robin Williams at an ice cream shop. I was on vacation. I got my ice cream and went outside to eat, and then he came out with his and actually sat down at my table. We talked for a solid 45mins. Best day of my life"

"Natalie Portman. I was working with ABC as part of the interview team years ago (before The Phantom Menace even came out).I was talking with her for a while when she casually mentions that she is going to be in the new Star Wars film.Being 17 and huge nerd, at first I just thought she was fucking with me.But then she said, "Yeah, I guess I'm Luke and Leia's mom." and laughed.I was so dumbfounded I actually said, "Take me with you.""To where?""To the Star Wars."She laughed and it was the greatest feeling in the world."

"Years ago, when Richard Gere was dating Cindy Crawford, my wife was doing some shitty grunt work many aspiring models did at the time, handing out some flyers on the streets of Chicago. The wind whips up, blows all the the flyers out of her hands, as she's struggling to pick them all up, this dude (Richard Gere) runs over to help her out. When they get them all off the ground, he hands a stack to her and says "Don't worry, it gets better" then smiles this warm, charming-ass smile and goes on his way."

"Vanilla Ice. He was doing one of those '90s Nostalgia' college campus tours in the UK back in 2005/6 and being a genuine fan of his, I went along to the show in Glasgow. The show itself was great, he played a lot of his harder and heavier material that I'm a fan of but 99% of the crowd just wanted to hear Ice Ice Baby. When he eventually played it at the end, it was the updated, modernised version of it...the crowd didn't seem that taken by it.After the show he was signing stuff. Mostly just flyers or people's bodies etc. I gave him my copy of his Hard To Swallow CD which caused him to double take. I told him I'm a big fan of his rap-metal material and he reacted with genuine happiness. He told the bouncer to let me and my girlfriend into his VIP spot and told us we could drink what we wanted while he finished signing stuff.He joined us some time later and I spent the night partying away with him and hearing lots of stories, some funny, some pretty messed up about the record industry. Then we went to a nearby Casino where he proceeded to happily drop hundreds onto the roulette table.An experience I'll never forget, he was very humble and we genuinely enjoyed each other's company. The guy knows the world views him as a parody, and he made peace with it. He released the rap-metal albums knowing they weren't going to go far, but done it for himself and regrets nothing."

"Warning: David Bowie Story.Years ago I was working backstage at a theatre in NYC. We were hosting a ballet company that was doing their annual holiday time money grab. This particular year it was a production of the Nutcracker aimed at children. Word travelled quickly that David Bowie was in the audience with his wife and kids. The organizer of the ballet passed them a message through the ushers that asked them to stay after to meet the dancers and take pictures.When the time came to collect David Bowie from the audience and usher him backstage, I was somehow nominated and as a huge Bowie fan, I was star-struck and panicked. I quickly devised a plan wherein I would greet Freaking David Freaking Bowie and walk him quickly to the backstage entrance, say "right through here, sir", and duck into a nearby restroom. Getting to the stage from that particular door was a bit of a labyrinth (ha) but the thought of trying to keep it together while walking them the all the way to the stage was just too much.All goes according to plan until I go to enter the restroom. David Bowie pivots and says "Oh, is that the restroom?" Whatever happened next was a total blur, but the next thing I know I am alone in a small restroom (two urinals and a stall) with David Bowie. Me and Bowie. Pissing in tandem.You know how sometimes your brain throws out the most bizarre thoughts in the the most awkward situations in order to make you laugh? All I could think of was "I wonder if he's spinning his testicles like those metal balls in Labyrinth..."I remained frozen, eyes forward, unflinching, dick in hand as David Bowie flushed, washed his hands and exited. That was my uncomfortable brush with greatness. RIP, Bowie. We love you."

"I met Christopher Eccleston in morrisons around the time of the doctor who revival, he told me that the tardis was parked in the car park but I couldn't tell anyone cause he was on a secret mission. He gave me a £2 coin too. He was very nice. I was like 8 years old by the way."

"Malcolm McDowell was super awesome. I worked at a small FBO and he flew in. I was recently obsessed with A Clockwork Orange. So he came over to introduce himself and my dumb ass says "How's the wine?!" He started laughing uncontrollably for a minute or two and said NO ONE ever quoted that to him. Spent about 30 minutes talking about that film and Kubrick. Such a great dude."

"Tony Curran at Dragoncon two years ago. He played Vincent Van Gogh in the Doctor Who episode Vincent and the Doctor, which deals with mental health, unsurprisingly. It's a well-written, emotional episode, and when he asked what I wanted to talk about I just started crying. I told him that was my favorite episode of Doctor Who and he asked if it was difficult, sometimes. He was the absolute sweetest person ever. He actually reached up and brushed tears off my face, and hugged me, and I can't repeat enough how nice he is. (Sidenote- he was there again last year. He remembered me, not because of the crying, but because he liked my costume and I was wearing the same one.)"

"George Takai is a genuinely nice guy. My wife and I were at Planet Comicon in Kansas city last year when he was there, and his line was empty. We were getting his signature for my brother-in-law who is a big Trekkie.We were expecting the standard shuffle through and signature experience, but he stood up, shook both our hands, and then just talked with us for what seemed like 10-15 minutes, but was probably only about 2.We talked about his musical and when it was coming to the Midwest, and about his daughter's first job in Iowa, but how she missed the California weather.He was the highlight of the convention for us."

"Steve Martin - This was 12ish years ago. I used to work at the Ride for Atlantis at Caesars Palace Forum Shops. I was doing the ride portion and you are required to give a speech and get people ready to ride the 3D motion ride. Well my girlfriend (now wife) was in the section before me and called me on the phone we had and whispered "oh my god, I just gave Steve Martin the pre-show speech!" and she hung up. The doors open and people started filing in and lo and behold there was Steve Martin with his entourage. He smiled at me, said hi and shook my hand and sat in the back. I went up, gave my speech and during my speech people would usually talk while they buckled in and he was hushing people around him and held his attention to me for the entire thing. At the end of the ride, i took his 3D goggles i issued to everyone and he said thanks again to me again and gave me a handshake. They all left and all I could think about was how damn polite he was. The thank you's and hand shakes felt genuine. You can tell when people are just saying thank you to say thank you or what not and it felt like he actually gave a damn. My wife and I still bring it up to this day.Steve Martin, if you are out there. You rock man. Seriously."

"Mickey Rourke! My sister approached him at a restaurant in NYC about his dog saying how cute it was and he took the time to talk about the dog, the breed, and offered a puppy of the same breed since the dog had just given birth. My sister explained my parents didn't allow her to have a dog despite wanting one for so long so he came over to our table and made a case for my sister on why she should own a dog, then offered to personally buy her a dog.It was a really nice gesture and it's why my sister's dog is named Mickey (although she tells everyone he's named after Mickey Mouse because she's embarrassed about the story)"

"I met Steve Buscemi outside of a comedy club in LA. My friends and I saw him smoking a cigarette alone and I went up to him and said "Hey, you're Steve Buscemi. Can I have a hug?" Then he said "You want a hug?" He shrugged and gave me a hug. 😀 So yeah, he was very nice!"

"I met Whoopie Goldberg at ComicCon a couple years ago. She was interviewing cosplayers for a hobby segment. She seemed genuinely interested when asking about what character people were dressed as and having them explain the setting they came from.She liked my Slenderman costume and called me out of a crowd to come get interviewed. After it was done and she and her posse was walking away, she lagged behind them and I sorta stammered out, "Thank you, Ms. Goldberg!". She stopped and turned around, and said, "Please, it's just Whoopie.""

"Mohammed Ali. I was in the airport lounge for American in New York waiting for the early flight to Chicago. He came in with all his entourage and sat in the seats across from me. I pretended to read my newspaper (this was the early 1990's) but was watching him the entire time. When one of his "people" went to the coffee service I went up to him and asked if I could say hello to Mr. Ali. The guy said "Sure! He loves it when people come and talk to him." I went over to Ali and introduced myself, we shook hands (he has GIGANTIC hands) and he invited me to sit down next to him. We sipped coffee and chatted for about 25 minutes until I had to leave for my flight. He can't sign autographs because of his Parkinson's, but he was the nicest, kindest man. I'll never forget it."

"I met Tony Hawk while I was working at Congress and some lobby was bringing him in to do meet and greets with congressional staffers. It was kind of a weird experience. I don't think that this will surprise everyone, but he was basically a teenager in a 40 year-old's body. We asked him if the meet and greets were the only thing he was doing that day and he said he had actually just come from a middle school, where he did some kind of speaking event for the students. He said it was funny because a student asked him how much money he made and his response was basically, "I don't know, dude, I have people that handle that." It was very odd because it made him seem very out of touch with reality, but in the most innocent way--like a teenager who recognizes they need money to pay for stuff, but not the actual value of any money they acquire."

"I met Joe Biden a few years ago. He's a genuinely friendly guy...and hilarious."

"Elijah Wood. I was working in a 6 star hotel bar, I walked up to him and explained that what I was about to say was frowned upon before complimenting his work as Spyro the purple dragon.He was pretty happy."

"Was at the Star Wars Celebration in London in 2007. Went to get into a lift with my girlfriend but a ton of people were getting out and some were still in. I saw a hand come out of the lift, take my girlfriends arm and pull her in, I followed and stood next to the guy who had pulled her in.Mark Hamill!I said nothing, I was COMPLETELY star struck! My girlfriend had no clue who he was. I thought it was nice that he would actively get people into his lift. Wish I'd been able to speak to him.Fun fact, I'd only been dating my girlfriend for a couple of months at the time, and she took me to the celebration as a surprise because she knew I was a big fan, she'd never seen Star Wars at that point. She is now my wife!"

"Sandra Bullock. I was working at a retail store in the Pittsburgh airport alone one morning. Slow day, no customers for about an hour, then she walked in. Sold her a portable charger for her phone and we chatted about Pittsburgh for about 5 minutes. Really nice lady."

"Daniel Radcliffe. Met him in vancouver Canada when he came here randomly. I was working at a bar he dropped by. Super chill guy. Took a photo with quite a few people, but I never got one because I was too shy to ask him.He seemed to be very genuine, and not overexcessive with his money. He wore pretty simple clothes as well, I think like a regular plaid shirt and jeans."

"Charlie Day. We high-fived at a house party at midnight on new years. Dude crushed at karaoke."

"Pulled up next to Will Arnett in Winnipeg traffic. Got him to roll down his window and I was like "Will! What the heck are you doing in Winnipeg!?" He laughed and said "I know right? Must of made a wrong turn in Saskatchewan" That was basically all, I wished him well and he ended up getting away as his lane was moving faster."

'Junior Seau. From an earlier post: I volunteered to help with his foundation's event where the recognize a local sports hero. That year it was Jimmie Johnson. They auctioned off goods to raise money for the charity with Junior as the auctioneer. ... At the end, us lowly volunteers were in the kitchen, getting a sandwich meal they had packed for us after cleaning, and in walked Junior with a double armful of live orchids. They had been the centerpieces on the tables at the auction. I thought everyone had left but us. He goes to every lady in the room and gives her one and thanks her for volunteering. He shakes all the guys hands and smiles and talks for second, calling everyone "Buddy". I was actually the last guy he stopped at, being the closest to the door, and he shook my hand and thanked me. If you never met him, he was a stunningly immense human being, like a mountain of muscle. He saw my wedding ring and gave me the last orchid and said: "This is for your wife. Tell her it's from Junior Seau and that her husband did a good thing today. She probably wonders what your doing out this late. Thanks, Buddy."'

"I've had several conversations with Terry Pratchett. He was amazingly accommodating with his fans. We all miss him."

"Jay Leno. And please, hear me out.When I was 17 (this was in 2010), I got to go backstage at the Tonight Show because I was a huge fan of the show. After the show, he came into the green room and talked to me and my family for a solid ten minutes.After we had left the studio, we saw him in his car leaving the studio and signing autographs for fans.The real kicker: the next year, I graduated high school. Out of nowhere, the dude sent me a fucking letter congratulating me on that.He couldn't have been nicer to me."

"Alec Baldwin attempted to rescue me and my friends about 15 years ago.I grew up near Wilmington, NC, and my friends and I were out fishing in a small boat. Our lines get tangled up in the motor, we can't steer the boat, and it ends up washed up on the beach on an island. Waves are constantly crashing over it, filling it with water way faster than we can bail. We send one friend to the intracoastal waterway side of the island to get help. He comes back with some random guy, and Alec Baldwin.Alec stayed there and helped us for a good 15 minutes, when he easily could have just left these 4 dumb kids who weren't in any real danger. Super nice guy. Eventually even with their help we couldn't free the boat, so they took my friend onto their boat (with Kim Basinger and her friend) to their house, where my friend called for help. Eventually some Coast Guard guys came with a bilge pump to free us. Thanks Alec!"

"He giggled at me being all excited to meet him. He jokingly held one of my knees because it was shaking.Then he gave me a hug. His hands were so big that his pinky could reach my elbow but his thumb was just under my shoulder. He wasn't very tall, so it was kinda crazy how big his hands were.He was so nice."