On January 7, as the Palisades Fire exploded, a man interrupted a reporter's live shot.It was Steve Guttenberg, one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s and '90s.
He had been moving cars – abandoned by people around Pacific Palisades trying to escape the encroaching fire – so that emergency vehicles could get through."What's happening is, people take their keys with them as if they're in a parking lot.This is not a parking lot," he told KTLA.
"If you leave your car behind, leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there."He can't remember how he got to safety. Many days later, with much of his hometown reduced to ruins, he was still there to help protect his and his neighbors' homes.He showed me a part of Sunset that had been stacked with cars.
"Yeah, couldn't get through," he said."So, I was moving some of these cars over there.
And then, a lotta these cars just didn't have keys in them.Locked." I asked, "What is it in you that is compelling you to stay here?" "You know, it's not often in life that you feel like you can make a difference," he replied.
"And I really feel like I can make a difference.Like, I'm able bodied, I'm strong, I have a heart, and I care.
And this is what I'm supposed to do today."If you know Guttenberg, you know he's a helper.Seven years ago, he put everything on hold to care for someone with whom he was deeply in love: his father.
I noted, "I'm gonna try to get through this interview without crying because I lost my dad."Guttenberg asked, "What was your dad's name?" "Douglas.""Hi, Douglas!" Guttenberg said."You know, when you say a person's name who's passed, they come around.
I believe they're not always with you, 'cause they've got other things to do.But Douglas is here, and so is Stanley, my dad."My dad was the greatest," he said.
"He was the first man who ever held me, first guy I ever looked in his eyes.And I fell in love with my dad."Gut...