My friends Jimmy and Peter are both big fans of the TV series The Greatest American Hero. While the show has always intrigued me, so far I haven’t had the time or inclination to start watching the series. But since I am interested in super-heroes, I did have William Katt, who played the title role in the series (aka Ralph Hanley), on my radar as someone of whom I’d like to meet. What’s more, my friend Peter had gotten a nice photo of himself taken with Katt and his Greatest American Hero co-star Robert Culp. He had gotten Culp to sign the photo, but was still waiting for Katt.
Back in February of 2012 William Katt had been scheduled to appear at a Hollywood Show, but didn’t end up showing up, so I had to disappoint Peter and return his photo to him. But later that year, his name popped up on the list of another show I was planning to attend – the Days of the Dead in Chicago, Illinois, on November 18, 2012. So the photo came back to me once again, and I began to chase Katt once again.
For some reason I had gotten the impression that he wasn’t all that friendly, so I was prepared for the worst when I encountered him at the show. My concerns were immediately assuaged when he came across as super-friendly and was charging a reasonable $20 per signature with a free photo op included. No one can argue with that these days. The only thing I wasn’t all that crazy about was the photo that he had from Greatest American Hero (I had debated going for the Carrie photo, the film in which he played Carrie’s date, the ill-fated Tommy Ross).
I told him how I had missed seeing him in Hollywood in February and told him about my friend Peter and how he had had this photo since 2005. He was interested in the fact that I’d traveled from Ohio and told me how he enjoyed that area as well as his travels in Pennsylvania. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. Oh, and since there seemed to be no one around to take our picture, the celebrity sitting next to his table – Chris Sarandon – snapped the photos for us. He was actually a better photographer than most people I encounter. How cool is that?
Celebrity encounters from the Chicago Days of the Dead Show will continue…
Thank you much for getting my photo signed for me.
Also, I hope that I didn’t somehow give you the impression that Katt wasn’t all that friendly. When I met him in 2005, he couldn’t have been nicer. On the other hand, his handler at that time, while not unfriendly, could have been a little more gracious.
Peter
June 22nd, 2013
William Katt’s mother, Barbara Hale (who played Della Street on Perry Mason) was one of our guests at last year’s Cinecon banquet. William was there too and both were super-nice people. I had a great conversation with Barbara as we spoke about preservation (we store all of the original Perry Mason camera negatives here at my office). I wish all celebrities would be as nice as these two!!
Jim Harwood
June 24th, 2013