Former Hear’Say star Myleene Klass helped save the day when a reveller got into difficulty at Brighton Pride recently. But she’s not the first celeb to do something heroic
Ex-pop star and presenter Myleene Klass recently helped save a man’s life at Brighton Pride, while volunteering for St John’s Ambulance – no, it wasn’t just Hear’Say. However, she’s not the only star to hit the headlines for their real-life heroics.
Donning my own makeshift cape, I decided it was time to celebrate celebrity acts of courage…
Cruise control
Before earning his action-man credentials, a baby-faced Tom Cruise came to the rescue on the set of cheesy 80s rom-com Cocktail.
A nasty surprise was almost in store when, in a break between scenes, co-star Elisabeth Shue ran to the back of a helicopter, unaware that the tail rotor was still spinning. Cruise, aka barman Brian, was quick to act.
According to a book written by Bill Bennett, the film’s aerial camera operator, he “lunged after her, but was only able to grab her legs, tackling her to the ground” and “truly saved her life.” We’ll drink to that!
May the Ford be with you
Given his swashbuckling roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, it should come as no surprise that Harrison Ford isn’t a slouch in the save-the-day department.
The acting legend has taken to the skies in his beloved chopper multiple times to help stranded folk. In 2000, Ford whizzed to the aid of a young hiker called Sarah, who’d fallen ill following a five-hour climb of the 11,106ft Table Mountain in Wyoming. How did she repay him? The then-20-year-old said she “barfed” in his whirlybird afterwards.
A year later, he answered an SOS to find boy scout Cody, 13, who had gotten lost near Yellowstone National Park. Now, that’s what you call winging it.
Sss-afe and sound
Now this really is one for the film hiss-tory books. While shooting 1984 romp Romancing the Stone, Danny DeVito was far from rattled when co-star and chum Michael Douglas was bitten by a venomous snake.
The diminutive actor recalled: “I always heard the best thing to do is suck the poison out right away, so I did. I grabbed his hand, and I’m spitting all over the place.
“I say [to Michael], ‘Boy, it’s a good thing this didn’t bite you on the balls – you’d be a dead man.” Hope Devito got a boa-nus for his efforts…
You won’t Believe
Buddies Cher and Meryl Steep were on an ice-cream run in New York City when they stumbled upon an in-progress assault.
Revisiting the unnerving incident, Cher said: “We hear screaming. We come around the corner and this gigantic man is ripping the clothes off this girl.
“Meryl starts screaming, I start screaming, and we run towards [him]… he ran through us, [then] we went up to the girl and all her clothes were torn… she looks at us and goes, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve been saved by Meryl Streep and Cher!’”
Streep later added she went “completely nuts” at the culprit.
Dark Knight in shining armour
Well, cowl about this. Batman fave Michael Keaton stopped director friend Dennis Dugan from choking to death on a bit of lodged food. At no point did he think his pal was Joker-ing.
“All of a sudden, I look at him and he’s really red in the face, and then he’s kind of getting a shade of blue that was concerning,” Keaton said.
“He very calmly [pointed at his neck] and I remember seeing somewhere, or someone explaining what the Heimlich manoeuvre was. So, I got behind him and thought, ‘Man, I hope this works’… this thing just shot across the room.” Phew!
Swimming Schwarz
Fortunately, it wasn’t a case of “Hasta La Vista, Baby” when Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted a man drowning.
In 2004, the Terminator star – and then Governor of California – was holidaying with his family in Hawaii. He noticed the chap struggling 400 yards offshore, dove in the waves, then pulled him to safety with the aid of a boogie board.
Arnie said: “I asked him if he was in trouble, and he said he had cramps all over his body. I sat him on the beach and told him to relax a little because he was so out of shape.
“He told me that for two years he hadn’t done any exercise.” He probably hasn’t gotten back into swimming since…
The wheel deal
Life (kind of) imitated art for Benedict Cumberbatch, aka cunning crime-cracker Sherlock Holmes, when he intervened in a mugging in 2018.
The British thesp and his missus were riding in the back of an Uber when they witnessed a delivery cyclist being assaulted by four thugs.
Their driver later said: “I had hold of one lad, and Benedict another. He seemed to know what he was doing. He was very brave. He did most of it to be honest.
“They tried to hit him, but he defended himself and pushed them away. He wasn’t injured. Then I think they recognised it was Benedict and ran away.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
