Ian Ziering played the swashbuckling hero in six “Sharknado” romps.
The “90210” alum saved the day in the seriously silly saga. But he showed some real-world bravery recently during an encounter with a local mini bike gang.
It’s hardly the first time an actor took his heroism to the streets, but Ziering’s actions drew praise from his fellow “90210” stars and those who suggest action heroes can’t bring some Hollywood swagger to their private lives.
Ziering, driving in Los Angeles with his 12-year-old daughter on New Year’s Eve, was boxed in by an aggressive driver near Hollywood Blvd. Several members of a local mini bike gang surrounded stepped in front of the actor’s car to make sure he couldn’t drive away.
Ziering says he got out of his car to assess any damage, and, according to reports, threw the first punch at the bikers to clear space for him to drive away safely. The ensuing street brawl was captured on video with Ziering managing to escape. He was later seen comforting his frightened daughter.
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Another on-screen action star, Benedict Cumberbatch, similarly did the right thing during a 2018 altercation. The man known to millions as Doctor Strange saw a cyclist get clubbed by a gang of thugs from his seat in an Uber. Cumberbatch and his wife told the driver to stop the car while he got out to help the injured man.
The actor grabbed one of the muggers before the crook and his fellow thugs ran off.
Crisis averted, and Cumberbatch didn’t need a script to know how to save the day. The Uber driver helped, too, but he credited the British star for doing most of the heavy lifting.
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“Benedict was courageous, brave and selfless. If he hadn’t stepped in, the cyclist could have been seriously injured. Here was Sherlock Holmes fighting off four attackers just round the corner from Baker Street.”
Cumberbatch later called his actions “foolhardy” and played down any talk of his heroism.
Actor Dev Patel is relatively new on the scene, and he’s hardly stereotyped as an action hero. He tends to play more cerebral figures, with his role in “The Green Knight” being an exception.
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Still, the “Slumdog Millionaire” star summoned his inner action hero in 2022 to stop a knife fight in South Australia from getting ugly. A verbal confrontation between a man and a woman got ugly, and the man suffered a stab wound as the matter intensified. Patel and some friends intervened, making sure the situation didn’t get significantly worse and staying with the injured man until help could arrive.
Star of the “Machete” franchise, Danny Trejo, survived his troubled youth and time spent behind bars to become a go-to character actor in action movies.
In 2019, Trejo spotted an overturned car in the Sylmar suburb of Los Angeles. He and a bystander noticed a special-needs child trapped in the vehicle and got to work. The actor struggled to unbuckle the child’s safety belt, but the bystander approached the car from a different angle and unlatched the belt.
Trejo reached in, grabbed the child and safely removed him from the car. All the while he reassured the frightened lad that help was on the way.
“He was panicked. I said OK, we have to use our superpowers. So he screamed ‘superpowers’ and we started yelling ‘superpowers,” I said do this, with the muscles. He said ‘muscles.'”
Helping others is an off-screen passion, he told CSUN Today.
“My whole life is dedicated to helping other people. That’s how I get through the day.”
Sean Penn’s verbal activism may infuriate some, but he’s still the star you want around in times of trouble.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Penn personally rescued several people stranded by the flooded waters. He shared cash with the grateful residents and even took some to a local hospital. The star did get some negative blowback from the mission, though, since he had a personal photographer on the scene to capture his heroism.
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The “Mystic River” star later rallied, along with his daughter Dylan, to rescue a woman and child trapped under rubble following the 2010 Haitian earthquake which killed more than 300,000 people.
The actor had relocated to Haiti following the natural disaster and created a relief organization to aid the embattled nation.
A witness to the rescue said Penn pulled the injured duo free from the wreckage and drove them to a nearby hospital camp. He followed through on his heroism, staying with them until doctors treated them for their injuries.
Tom Cruise plays the ultimate action hero in the “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible” franchises. He takes the role seriously, putting himself at risk time and time again to help strangers.
He saved the day three times in 1996 alone. He helped a hit-and-run victim get to the hospital and even picked up her emergency room tab.
Later that year, he and then-wife Nicole Kidman helped rescue passengers of a fiery boat, sending their skiff over to bring them aboard their vessel.
He capped 1996 spotting two boys being crushed against barricades set up during the British premiere of his film “Mission: Impossible.” The actor rushed in, getting the boys to safety and earning praise from one of the lad’s parents.
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Two years later, he spotted a jewelry theft in progress while in London to shoot “Eyes Wide Shut.” The actor chased the thugs away, sparing the victim in the process. This time, he had his personal bodyguards with him to help in his efforts.
Actors often stumble when bereft of a script or direction. A few, however, proved that years of on-screen heroism gave them the courage to do the right thing away from a Hollywood set.