Secret Life of a Celebrity Chauffeur

A veteran Hollywood limo driver spills the beans on shuttling celebrities, battling boredom, and other trade secrets of a fading art.

Illustrations by Jackson Rees

Donal “Sully” O’Sullivan unlocks the door to his gleaming black Lincoln town car, a majestic vehicle that stands out in a row of smaller, dusty economy cars. The new-car smell wafts throughout the limo, with its leather seats and complimentary water bottles for passengers. Sully climbs into the driver’s seat and closes the door, disappearing, along with the secrets of his clientele, behind dark tinted windows.

Sully has been a limousine driver in Los Angeles for the past ten years. He is fifty-eight years old, tall and lanky with a chiseled jaw and grey-blue eyes. His Irish brogue makes everything sound like it will have a punch line. He has driven Hollywood executives, B-list actors and world-famous celebrities. “Every time I look at the telly, I see somebody that I have a story about,” he says. But Sully won’t gossip or divulge their secrets. “If somebody takes you into their confidence in a really personal way, especially the rich and famous, you have to…