I had Nicholson as a passenger on my plane once flying from Washington to Los Angeles. I remember seeing him on Carson earlier and Johnny had asked him about what people say about him that he does not like to be approached and asked for autographs and had actually been pretty nasty with a few fans when they did ask. Jack's reply was that the only thing he owed his fans was a good performance. I wanted to just speak a minute with him while we were in flight, but wasn't sure how to approach him. This was before 9/11, so the pilots did leave the cockpit to use the lavatory. While we were airborn and some 1000 mile from L.A., I went back to use the lav in the First Class section and pretended that I didn't know he was there and acted surprised to see him. I said, "Holy Cow, Jack Nicholson. This is a surprise. I would like to shake your hand and thank you for the many great movies that I have watched you in. Do you mind?", as I held out my hand. He said, "No, I don't mind. How can I refuse to shake a man's hand that has my life in his hands?" Of course, we both sort of laughed it off, but I was careful not to ask for his autograph even though I was tempted.
That was an interesting flight in more ways than one. I had to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City because we had a man on-board the plane that was having a heart attack. Back then, we didn't carry AED devices with us, but our F/A's were trained to give CPR. It was later proven that AED's save very few lives, but United-Continental is one of the few airlines that carry AED's.
