Celebrity Heroes: Leonardo DiCaprio, More Stars Who Saved Lives (2025)

Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Jamie Foxx and Carrie Underwood are some of the stars who have stepped in to save the day for real people.“One of the places I went was this amazing beach called Manuel Antonio that I didn’t realize had an insane riptide,” John Krasinski told Playboy in March 2018. “While I was swimming there — this is a story I’ve never told anybody — this Costa Rican girl and an American guy were swimming right next to me, and we were knee-deep. I went underwater for a second, and when I came back up, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Literally, in three seconds, the girl had been swept 150 yards out.”Krasinski reacted immediately. “In that moment, I didn’t ask anyone. There was no one to help me. I just went out and tried to save her,” he recalled. “And then, of course, when I got out there, I was in a crosscurrent with her. It was one of those moments of ‘Oh, my God, you just made a poor choice and it might cost you your life.’”The Jack Ryan star noted that he “didn’t think about it like that” at the time. “It was just this survival instinct,” he said. “It was really weird — like the girl was asking me to let her die. But I got her back.”Surfers eventually interceded to help them make it back to the shore, but the moment stuck with Krasinski. “Granted, not everybody needs to have life-or-death experiences, but that changed my entire life,” he revealed. “All of a sudden I grew up.”Meanwhile, other celebrities — such as Idris Elba, Tom Cruise, Ryan Gosling and Jennifer Lawrence — have similar stories that occurred after they achieved worldwide recognition.Scroll down to revisit stars’ heroic efforts to help others through the years.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Jamie Foxx and Carrie Underwood are some of the stars who have stepped in to save the day for real people.“One of the places I went was this amazing beach called Manuel Antonio that I didn’t realize had an insane riptide,” John Krasinski told Playboy in March 2018. “While I was swimming there — this is a story I’ve never told anybody — this Costa Rican girl and an American guy were swimming right next to me, and we were knee-deep. I went underwater for a second, and when I came back up, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Literally, in three seconds, the girl had been swept 150 yards out.”Krasinski reacted immediately. “In that moment, I didn’t ask anyone. There was no one to help me. I just went out and tried to save her,” he recalled. “And then, of course, when I got out there, I was in a crosscurrent with her. It was one of those moments of ‘Oh, my God, you just made a poor choice and it might cost you your life.’”The Jack Ryan star noted that he “didn’t think about it like that” at the time. “It was just this survival instinct,” he said. “It was really weird — like the girl was asking me to let her die. But I got her back.”Surfers eventually interceded to help them make it back to the shore, but the moment stuck with Krasinski. “Granted, not everybody needs to have life-or-death experiences, but that changed my entire life,” he revealed. “All of a sudden I grew up.”Meanwhile, other celebrities — such as Idris Elba, Tom Cruise, Ryan Gosling and Jennifer Lawrence — have similar stories that occurred after they achieved worldwide recognition.Scroll down to revisit stars’ heroic efforts to help others through the years.

Efron shared in April 2025 that he saved two women from drowning in Miami. “We just sprinted out there. There were two closest to us that already had a guy helping them in. There were three out further, so I swam one in and swam back for another girl,” Efron said on an episode of “Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast.”

He continued, “The last girl I swam in, I was just trying to calm her down and just saying, ‘Breath, breath.’ She just wraps me in the biggest hug and doesn’t want to let go. We hugged for like a full minute. I’m like, ‘You’re safe, you’re good.'”

Despite his efforts, Efron insisted he’s not a hero. “I feel like I did what most people would have done in that situation,” Efron said.

The Saturday Night Live alum revealed in December 2020 that she helped save a man’s life at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The individual in danger was involved in a kayak accident in New York City’s Hudson River. “The first morning that we were there, I was standing outside and we were looking out — you could see the Hudson River from where we are, it’s so pretty — and I just heard something,” she recalled on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Since she couldn’t determine whether someone needed help or if it was simply a bird, she sought the help of her daughter Alice and husband, Jeff Richmond. They eventually called the police. “The cops take off and then we found out a couple of hours later that it was a guy who flipped a kayak in the Hudson and was floating, no oar!” she explained. “They found him a mile north in the river.”

Having a meeting with his publicist at New York City’s Peninsula Hotel in August 2012, the actor came to the aid of a woman suffering a seizure. “I held her hand and said a few prayers,” Baldwin told the New York Daily News. “I wanted to make sure the young lady was OK and her breathing wasn’t restricted.” Following the three-minute episode, the woman was revived thanks to Baldwin’s quick thinking.

Once known as the villain on NBC’s The Apprentice, the reality star tried the role of hero on for size in July 2012 when she revived her then-boyfriend, actor Michael Clarke Duncan, using CPR after the Green Mile star suffered a heart attack. Duncan never fully recovered from his cardiac problems and died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., where he had been hospitalized since the incident, in September 2012.

Less than a year after he singlehandedly broke up a fight between two men attempting to steal a painting in New York City, the actor prevented a British journalist from getting hit by a taxi in 2012. “I didn’t remember to look the right way,” Laurie Penny wrote of the incident. “An actor happened to be passing and stopped me from getting run over by a car. I said, ‘Thank you.’ And that was that. The actor happened to be Ryan Gosling.”

On September 11, 2001, Paltrow had an awkward stand-off with jaywalking pedestrian Lara Lundstrom Clarke in downtown Manhattan that resulted in the woman being late for work at the World Trade Center's South Tower. By the time Clarke arrived, the first tower was already falling. "I think a lot of fates were changed that day obviously and I am very humbly happy to be a part of her story," Paltrow later said.

Heroic Harry! The Duke of Sussex saved the life of American businessman Bash Kazi after the polo player was knocked unconscious during a mid-game collision in 2012. Harry turned Kazi over after he fell and stayed with him until he regained consciousness. “I remember waking up with these piercing blue eyes looking at me,” Kazi said.

In January 2012, the Avatar actress was driving in California when she came across an elderly woman involved in a car crash. Witnessing the accident, Saldana rushed to the woman’s aid, helping her out of her car, calling 911 and even retrieving the woman’s purse while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Filming World War Z in Scotland in summer 2011, Pitt sprung into action when a movie extra was injured on set during a scene and almost trampled. "Lots of people hurt themselves and Brad came to the rescue of one woman who slipped," a set source told The Scottish Sun. "I don't think she could believe it when Brad picked her up."

The Titanicstar escaped injury in 2011 when staying at Richard Branson's Caribbean estate after the $70 million manse went up in flames. Among 20 people staying at Branson's home at the time, Winslet carried the mogul's 90-year-old mother, Eve, to safety.

True Blood's Kwanten helped save a bloody, injured man on a Hollywood street in 2001. Stumbling across the victim, Kwanten jumped out of his car and immediately tried to help. "He stayed there watching him until paramedics arrived," a witness said of the Australian actor. "He was just making sure this guy was OK."

The Ghost star teamed up with actress Nia Vardalos to alert Florida authorities after a male fan threatened, via Twitter, to hang himself. "R U rlly asking 4 help?" Moore tweeted. Vardalos also called a suicide hotline after reading the man's plea. "Just spoke to FL police again, they're with [him] now. He is ok, it's not a hoax. Thank u all for sending love," Vardalos tweeted.

"I'm having a very difficult, hard time taking credit for this," the rapper told Us Weekly after talking a suicidal man down from a 22-story skyscraper in Atlanta in 2010. "God did all the work. I just showed up," T.I. said. "So I can't say it's the most heroic thing that I did. It may have been one of the most spiritual moments that I've had."

Osbourne thwarted would-be car burglars in London in July 2011. “Just stopped 2 boys robbing a car all I said was ‘oi’ and they ran like the wind,” she tweeted. “I did not realise I was that scary!”

In 1998, Ford was credited with saving a hiker in distress stranded mid-climb on Idaho's Table Mountain. Sick and unable to take more than a few steps, Sarah George was rescued when Ford piloted his personal helicopter to her location. "I can't believe I barfed in Harrison Ford's helicopter," George, who vomited into an EMT's hat during their descent, later said.

Traveling between Oklahoma and Tennessee over the holidays, Underwood pulled off the side of the road to rescue an injured pup who was “bloody” and “limping” in 2011. “My guess is that the dogs were thrown out of their car by their owners on the highway,” the singer wrote on her fan club blog of the animals, whom she took to a local vet for treatment.

The singer sprang into action in January 2012 in Miami when a helicopter flew too close to the beach he was vacationing on and an umbrella became airborne from the force of the propellers. As the umbrella headed toward a stroller with a baby inside, Chasez grabbed it before the child could be injured.

The actor rescued a motorist from a burning truck after the man crashed near Foxx’s California home in January 2016. “Jamie told CHP that he heard the accident and also a person screaming from the overturned vehicle,” the Ventura County-based Safety for Citizens wrote via Facebook. “Jamie also made a 911 call … [and] said he was able to reach into the vehicle, grab the person and drag them away to safety.”

The Oscar winner assisted a woman who collapsed outside her California apartment in June 2012. “The 911 call came in around 6:41 p.m. on Monday evening. Jennifer Lawrence and some other locals helped a juvenile female who appeared to have been drinking and was outside an apartment building,” Sergeant Richard Lewis of the Santa Monica Police told Us at the time. “Miss Lawrence and several others waited beside the female until the police and paramedics arrived. It was not serious and the female will be OK.”

The Titanic star saved a man who fell overboard on a cruise ship in St. Barts in January 2020. DiCaprio offered to help search for the man, who had been treading water for 11 hours, and ultimately located and rescued him.

The actor gave AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament CEO Steve John the Heimlich maneuver in February 2014 after he began choking at an event. “A piece of cheese went in my mouth, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe,” John told The Carmel Pine Cone, noting that Eastwood lifted him “right off the ground” and “the cheese popped out.”

The Mission: Impossible star has saved strangers on multiple occasions. Cruise’s rep said he “did what any decent person would do” after the actor rescued passengers from a sinking boat in 1996. He helped a woman involved in a car accident in L.A. earlier that year, going to the hospital with her and paying her medical bills. In 1998, the Risky Business star assisted a woman who was being mugged in London.

The actor helped a woman who collapsed during a July 2019 performance of his play Tree. “She was right next to Idris in the audience, so he was there trying to help out and make sure that paramedic support workers got to her,” Manchester International Festival artistic director John McGrath said at the time. “I believe that the lady is now well and fine, but it was certainly helpful that Idris was there to help out with that.”

Us confirmed that the Grey’s Anatomy alum saved a teenager who crashed his car in the front yard of the actor’s California home in April 2012. Dempsey rushed to the vehicle with a first-aid kit and fire extinguisher before freeing the driver and calling 911.

The former Bachelorette rescued a man from drowning while white-water rafting in Tennessee in June 2020. “Our raft flipped and her and her family were on the trip with us,” the man’s girlfriend tweeted. “She ended up pulling my bf onto their raft after the current took him.”

The Boy Meets World alum thwarted a burglar at his California home in October 2018. “We were asleep and I heard bang, bang, bang. … I lit the light and [wife] Bonnie [Bartlett] screamed and this person fled and that’s the whole damn story!” he explained on Good Morning America.

The Doctor Strange star fought off a group of four attackers who targeted a delivery cyclist in November 2017. “I did it out of, well, I had to, you know,” Cumberbatch told The Sun of the incident.

Before his big break, the Office alum lived in Costa Rica, where he saved a young woman from drowning. He explained to Playboy in March 2018 that he used the swimming lessons his mother taught him to stage the rescue.

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