Some celebrities are incredibly heroic. Some are utterly unheroic. Some are vapid and vain. Some are caring. Some are caring, even while being vapid and vain. Because celebrities, much like you and I, are human beings. They bleed red. They fart. They look awful sometimes after a rough night, and they have feuds and fights and rivalries that get ugly. Among the older generation of celebrities, you could find your fair share of heroes. Take Sir Christopher Lee, for example.
Here’s a man who, as a young fellow, enlisted in the British army. Eventually, he came to join the special forces, as he was a bright and intelligent guy and spoke multiple languages. He never could reveal much of his war-time service, and he did not — as he was a man of honor, and a man of his word. But he was highly awarded, highly regarded, and he often advised Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in which he starred… most of his advice had to do with ways in which to make the movie more realistic. Do you know, what sound a man makes when he gets stabbed? I can’t say I’m aware. Lee was; he stabbed men himself. He knows what a dying breath is supposed to sound like.
After the war ended, he started acting. And he was, by all accounts, amazing in every single role I’ve ever seen the man play. Amazing voice, intimidating, sinister, with the deep timbre of the ancient. But beyond his status as ‘celebrity’, a word Lee no doubt would have abhorred, he was also a man who risked his life and limb in the war. Which makes him, in my opinion, quite heroic. At the end of the day, if you do things that are worthy of praise and admiration, take risks, are daring and brave…, you deserve to be labelled a hero. And some of those we now call celebrities fit that bill.
Not all heroes, however, had wars to serve in. Some never held a rifle or a gun off a movie set, but still do things I would describe as heroic. What about John Travolta, for example? People always get caught up in the gossip — the cult he belongs to, an ugly wig he wears, or rumors of his sexuality… what no one seems to remember is that the man is a licensed airline pilot who has frequently flown entire Boeings full of relief goods to areas struck by disaster around the world. Paid for with millions out of his own pocket. Quite heroic, too, I’d say!
So yes. There are heroes in life. Men and women who put their money where their mouths are, or those who risk their lives for the freedom of others. And some of those people, like Sir Christopher Lee or John Travolta, just happened to be ‘celebrities’.
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