I can’t find a cite, but I seem to remember Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits saving someone from drowning in Sydney Harbor some years ago.
don’t know about heroic as in the usual definition, but Denzel Washington was visiting Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas recently and was given a tour of the “Fisher Houses”, these are houses where the families of injured soldiers stay free of charge while the soldier is recuperating, usually burn vitims. Apparently these houses are always full and are in short supply. Well, acccording to Snopes.com, he asked how much it cost to build one of said houses and when he was told he pulled out his checkbook and wrote them a check for the full amount on the spot. It doesn’t seem to take much these days to qualify as a hero, but I would definitely say that he is one in my book. 
* Denzel Washington visited Brooke Army Medical Center and expressed interest in donating to the Fisher House Foundation: True.
* Denzel Washington whipped out his checkbook and "wrote a check out for the full amount (for a new Fisher House) right there on the spot": False.
still, putting your money where your mouth is, no matter how much or how little is good, too many people are willing to trash out the military without thinking that a strong military has kept our country free and helped free other countries. Shrub senior and junior and Clinton aside, most of our wars are in response to treatie terms…
Major League Baseball Umpire Steve Palermo.
Actor Charles Durning. 3 Purple hearts and a silver star, WW 2.
What with Hollywood being part of L.A. and all, I always thought it would have been a nice and appropriate gesture to name our international airport after Stewart. “Stewart Field” certainly has a nicer ring to it than LAX.
I remember a few years ago Sean Hayes (Jack on TV’s Will & Grace) gave first aid to and called an ambulance for a man who had been mugged and shot.
I just checked his IMDB entry, and it had this to say about the incident:
The other night on Leno Mariska Hargitay (Det. Benson on TV’s Law & Order: SVU) told a story about how she’d been walking somewhere in NYC and saw a pregnant woman collapse on the sidewalk. She said the other onlookers were doing nothing so she went into “cop mode” and took control of the situation, ordering someone to call for an ambulance, getting the woman’s medical info, etc.
How about Audie Murphy? He actually became a celebrity, and then an actor, due to his heroics during WWII, but he actually enjoyed a pretty long acting career, rather than just a one-off deal.
I haven’t seen anything in the news about it lately, but that 80s pop star Michael Jackson once took pity on a young cancer patient and hosted him and his family for a good period of time at the Neverland ranch.
I suspect it was a splendid time for all, what with all the celebrity and Peter Pan stuff and all.
…wonder what ever happened to that kid? They should check back on stories like this!
How about post #18 in this thread?
What? Nobody’s mentioned baseball legend Roberto Clemente?
The Roberto Clemente Award:
Actor Eddie Albert
Ah! I came in to mention Eddie Albert and missed-it-by-that-much…
Since I did I’ll add these:
Eddie Foy remained onstage to help calm the panic at the horrible Iroquois Theater fire in 1903. More than 500 of the 1900 people in the theater died from fire and fumes, but had he not remained and done his best to make it an orderly exit it’s believed it could have been more.
Joshua Jackson of Dawson’s Creek was in the news a couple of years or so ago for saving a woman who was drowning off the coast of North Carolina.
Pam “Mindy” Dawber and her husband Mark Harmon risked their lives to pull two people from a burning car in 1996. (The car was near their home and they passed by as it began to burn.)
Also, Ben Curtis (best known… in fact, only known… as the Dell Dude) performed emergency first aid throughout the day on September 11, using rags made from his shirt and relying on his Scout training.
I’d say Dr. Zinn is pretty famous (he was also involved in the civil rights movement when this was dangerous), but all after his stint in WWII as a young man. There’s actually a whole generation of these guys, including Gore Vidal and George McGovern, obviously Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (who turned his POW experience into Slaughterhouse Five) and so forth. What’s harder to find are the famous-first, heroic acts-next types.
Yes, George McGovern was the real deal, bomber aircrew during The War. He never allowed it to be discussed to protect him from pro-war people.
A class act.
Lee Marvin, IIRC, was wounded in the invasion of Saipan in WWII. He was a private and was wounded on his third day in battle with damage to his sciatic nerve. Spent the next thirteen months recovering. Does that qualify him as a hero?
He risked his life for his country? Yes, but he is no longer kosher, due to damage to his sciatic nerve. 
For that matter, so are music stars, actors, politicians, and those who are big names in the left wing, but not the right wing, in response to previous questions. Even actors who have done heroic things, but were also known to beat there children count.
Well, ok, right-wingers can be counted too. 
However, not people who were famous due only to heroic actions and not to what they had done before saving lives, and certainly not people who enlisted in the army, never saw action, and then left.
Nice answers so far. Thanks.
This thread is losing its focus. For the sake of what I thought the OP was asking, I think we should refrain from listing anyone on the basis of simple military service. Let’s stick to specific heroic acts that can be verified and described as discrete events in which a specific person was saved as the result of a specific heroic act (whether or not connected with military service), not simply as a choice to serve.
One of the U.S. Track and Field team’s sprinters once apprehended a thief in an airport in Spain. IIRC, it was in 1999. I’m not recalling the sprinter’s name.