Jamie Foxx joins elite club of real-life, celebrity heroes with daring rescue

Oscar-winning actor, Jamie Foxx, became an even bigger star in the eyes of a California family when he saw a vehicle in distress and went to help.

A truck had gone off the road outside city limits, where it rolled several times. The vehicle caught fire and the driver, Brett Kyle, was trapped inside.

Having heard the crash from his house and called 911, Mr. Foxx ran to the scene, where he met another Good Samaritan. The fellow rescuer, who happened to be an off-duty paramedic, had a pair of EMT-rescue scissors that they used to break through the truck’s window. Foxx and the paramedic cut the man’s seat belt and pulled him out seconds before the entire truck burst into flames.

“I don't look at it as heroic," Foxx told the Associated Press. "I just look at it like, you know, you just had to do something. And it all just worked out."

On Tuesday, Foxx met the driver’s father, Brad Kyle, who said he had seen video footage of several other cars passing by his son’s burning truck without stopping.

"I just kept watching it and going 'My god, my god, he didn't have to do a thing,' " Mr. Kyle told the AP, tearing up. "I think we all hope that we can do something when the time is there. But the question is, do we act or do we fear for our own life? He did not."

The heroic act earned Foxx a place in an elite group – celebrities who go to the rescue in real-life.

Harrison Ford has proven that he can field a rescue in any role. Mr. Ford used his helicopter to rescue a Utah Boy Scout who was lost in a rainstorm near Yellowstone National Park, CBS News reported in 2001.

The incident proved Ford’s mid-rescue quips are not limited to the screen.

“Boy, you sure must have earned a merit badge for this one,” Ford told the scout, according to CBS.

Actress Kate Winslet has never played Superwoman, but she was ready to help when a house fire broke out at the home of Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands. Ms. Winslet was staying there with her children as a guest in 2011 and helped Branson’s nonagenarian mother, Eve, exit the house, ABC News reported.

“She swept her up into her arms and got them out of the house as fast as possible," Mr. Branson told the Telegraph.

Actor John Malkovich was in Toronto for a theater role in 2013 when he had an opportunity to perform on-the-spot first aid, the Toronto Star reported. An elderly man, Jim Walpole, had tripped on a curb and cut his neck, which began bleeding profusely. 

“I believe (Malkovich) was having a cigarette and witnessed the whole thing happening, he placed his hand and started applying pressure to the man’s neck – didn’t let go until the ambulance arrived,” Chris Mathias, a doorman working nearby who also ran to Mr. Walpole’s aid, told the Toronto Star.

Walpole recovered fully after emergency services took him to the hospital for stitches.

“I never had the opportunity to see him and thank him after the incident,” Walpole told the Toronto Star. “I asked him what his name was and he said it was John.”

This report contains material from the Associated Press.