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Steve Martin

3 Celebrities Who Give Way More Than an Autograph

April 11, 2016

Before the days of instant interaction via the Internet and social media, the way to tell a celebrity you liked their work was to write them a fan letter. In return, you might get a signed headshot and a form letter. Here are some celebrities, from then and now, with creative responses to fans.
Steve Martin

Steve Martin

In the 1980s, Steve Martin sent out a response letter that was both a form reply and a mockery of form replies. An excerpt: “Too often performers lose contact with their audience and begin to take them for granted, but I don’t think that will ever happen to me, will it ________?” (In the blank went the writer’s name.) Martin’s letters also included a fill-in-the-blank postscript: “I’ll always cherish that afternoon we spent together in Rio, walking along the beach, looking at _______.”

Jonah Hill

Jonah Hill, star of Superbad and The Wolf of Wall Street, thinks signing autographs is a little bland and impersonal. Instead, when he’s approached by a fan he hands out a business card that reads “I just met Jonah Hill. It was a total letdown.”

John Cleese

Around the time when he starred on Fawlty Towers in the 1970s, John Cleese sent out a stock fan letter to fans, but it was a pretty good one. It read:
I am afraid I’m much too important to write notes to people like you. Please remember that I am very very very very very very important. I enclose a photograph to remind you of my importance.