10 Celebrity Acts Of Heroism

You don’t have to be a hero to do something heroic. Sometimes all it takes is looking the fight or flight response in the face, and choosing to do battle. At their essence, the people who are oft-worshiped as celebrities are just regular Joes with some exceptional talent, or a lot of luck. Whatever the case, when you’re in the public eye, there can be a growing confidence that comes with fan-hood of thousands, or millions. The following 11 celebrities defied their comfort zone, when they acted heroically on these occasions.

10. Jack Osbourne

Imagine: you’re swimming in Hawaii, you’ve gone too far from shore, you greatly underestimated the power of the Pacific Ocean and the underlying current has completely exhausted you. You give in. You give up. You freak out. You have a heart attack. That happened to a woman who was pulled to shore only to be assisted by Jack Osbourne, and five other kind citizens. Fortunately for the woman, a Japanese doctor was on site, and Jack himself was trained in CPR from his police reserve work. After administering first-aid, they got the woman onto a golf cart where Jack continued to doing chest compressions in order to resuscitate the heart-attack/drowning victim. Yes, the woman survived. Yes, Jack remained quiet about the whole thing, and wished to remain anonymous. Unfortunately for him, his doting new wife chose to tweet about it.

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9. T.I.

Rolling through Atlanta one afternoon in 2010, T.I. came across a police scene that involved a potential suicide. A jumper was poised on the 22nd floor of a building, ready to leap when T.I. says he was hit with a sense of moral obligation to help. He stopped, spoke to police officers and suggested that the person might want to speak with someone who wasn’t part of the police department. T.I. offered a special message to the 24-year-old man, who was a fan of the then 30-year-old rapper. It was simple message of hope delivered by cell phone video, taken to the 22nd floor and played for the jumper. After seeing the video, he stepped away from the ledge, was escorted downstairs, met T.I. in the lobby, and was then taken to the hospital for treatment.

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8. Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise absorbs more media blows than the average super star. He’s picked on for everything from personal relationships to religious affiliations. Still, this guy has proven time and time again that he has a heart of gold. He always rises to the occasion and generally comes out on top of smear campaigns. On a particular night in 1996 Los Angeles, Tom came across a hit-and-run victim who was walking to a nearby bus stop. He stopped to aid her, called the ambulance, escorted her to UCLA Medical Center, then paid for her emergency room bill when he discovered that she had no insurance. The bill in 1996? $7,000. And that was just one event in 1996 that involved Tom Cruise playing hero. There were four other incidents that year, including Tom and his security team thwarting a mugging in London.

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7. Patrick Dempsey

Patrick Dempsey is no stranger to physical activity. The actor and professional race car driver once helped a teenage driver out of a terrible accident in Malibu. The 17-year-old driver rolled his car three times, and became trapped in a barely conscious state. Dempsey being familiar with auto accident protocol stemming from his time on the LeMans and Gran Prix circuits, took a crowbar and fire extinguisher and got to action. He immediately called for paramedics, then pulled the driver from the car and waited with him until help arrived. At that point, he took it upon himself to call the teen’s family; his mother was quite shocked to learn that she was being assuaged and comforted by “McDreamy.” The driver had a concussion, and an injury to his right eye, but made a complete recovery.

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6. Ryan Gosling

Maybe this one isn’t completely heroic, but one never knows might have happened had Ryan Gosling not intervened between two arguing parties on a New York City street. The argument had escalated, and become physical, and being the 21st century, people were doing little to help, and instead recorded the video on their cell phones. It was a command performance by Ryan, who waltzed in–guns/arms a’blazin’–and completely disarmed the situation. He physically separated the two men, then said enough to the gentlemen that they got out of the street and ventured to the sidewalk without further incident. We’re all pretty sure that Ryan should have played a superhero by now, but this is an example as to why we’d much rather have him playing Bruce Wayne/Batman than Ben Affleck. If you’re curious, yes… there are several videos of this floating around the Internet offering various perspectives.

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5. Vin Diesel

Of course Vin Diesel is on this list. He loves humanity. When he can help someone, he will, and especially when the task is daunting, daring and high-risk. While cruising Los Angeles on his motorcycle, Vin witnessed a bad car accident in which the car rolled several times. He was able to rescue the children from the backseat, while telling the front seat passengers they would need to crawl over the seat to get out of the car. After everyone was safely removed from the totaled vehicle the car became engulfed in flames. Yep. Everyone survived, because that’s how XXX rolls when you’re on his team.

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4. Sean Penn

This will draw the ire of some haters. Regardless of how you feel about Sean Penn, his politics, his outspokenness, his temperament… the guy has a heart for the less fortunate. In 2005, after Katrina blew New Orleans and devastated the gulf coast, Sean Penn traveled to the city with a crew, grabbed a boat and went looking for people in need of help. Yes. It is true. He was a little premature with his zeal, and didn’t plug his boat before embarking, causing it to take on serious water. Eventually, he got it handled, and with a sizable entourage, was able to grab several people and deliver them to dry and secure ground. Some people mocked his presence, others praised it. One man said that Sean saved him, and even offered him some cash after dropping him off in a safe location.

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3. Demi Moore

In the age of information, an act of heroism can be as simple as a well-timed text, or in the case of Demi Moore, a tweet. A fan of Demi was planning to commit suicide when the actress intervened, and began to exchange tweets with the distraught individual. Because of her contact, the authorities were able to locate the woman and help her. The woman from San Jose, CA, offered the following: “I’ve always been a fan of Demi Moore and she did an excellent job in helping me, and she deserves a lot of praise. I would also like to thank Daniel Morton, the original Twitter user that reached out to me and everyone else on the network that offered their support. I’m really grateful that so many people helped me during a time of need.” People helping people.

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2. David Lee Roth

“Oh, can’t you see me standin’ here, I got my back against the wreckin’ machine…” That is what David Lee Roth is famous for. He is the most desired front man (of the ones they’ve had) for Van Halen, but David has enjoyed more than a career in music. Like every human being, David has many interests, and one of his desires was to work as an EMT. He went through the appropriate and proper training, and became a professional paramedic. This isn’t something fans hear a lot about in interviews, because he prefers to keep it on the down-low. This is something he does because he enjoys it, he knows it helps people and on several occasion, he and his fellow team members have been responsible for saving lives. And the individuals in his care…? They’d never know he’s legendary rocker David Lee Roth.

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1. Jimmy Stewart

Legendary screen actor Jimmy Stewart played heroes on screen, but also played an American hero in real life. The only thing more decorated than his stage and screen career was his career in the United States military. It wasn’t uncommon for individuals of Jimmy’s generation to offer their hands in military service during armed conflicts, or in the case of Jimmy Stewart, World War II. Oftentimes, celebrities were offered positions that would allow them to talk-up the war effort, but Jimmy became a squadron commander, flying bomb missions in the European campaign, helping to defeat the Axis powers in Nazi Germany. The man who entered the military as a private, and who was too skinny to qualify for Army Air Corps was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in 1959.