Steve Guttenberg talks about helping during Pacific wildfires and caring for his personal hero – Blogging Sole

On January 7, as Palisades fire It exploded, a man interrupting a reporter’s live footage. One of the biggest movie stars of the 80s and 90s was Steve Guttenberg. He was moving cars — abandoned by people around the Pacific Palisades area trying to escape the creeping flames — so emergency vehicles could pass.

“What happens is people take their keys with them as if they were in a parking lot. “This is not a parking lot.” He told KTLA. “If you leave your car behind, leave the key there so someone like me can move your car so the fire trucks can get there.”

He does not remember how he got to safety.

Several days later, with much of his hometown reduced to rubble, he was still there to help protect his home and the homes of his neighbors. He showed me a part of the sunset that was packed with cars. “Yes, I couldn’t get through,” he said. “So, I was moving some of these cars over there. And then a lot of these cars didn’t have the keys. Locked.”

I said: What is in you that makes you 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 physically capable, I’m strong, I have a heart, and I care. And this is what I’m supposed to do today.”

If you know Gutenberg, you know he’s a helper. Seven years ago, he stopped everything to care for someone he loved dearly: his father.

I said, “I will try to finish this interview without crying because I lost my father.”

Gutenberg asked: “What is your father’s name?”

“Douglas.”

“Hey Douglas!” Gutenberg said. “You know, when you say the name of someone who’s dead, they come around. I guess they’re not always with you, because they have other things to do. But Douglas is here, and so is Stanley, my father.”

“My father was the greatest,” he said. “He was the first man I ever held, and the first man I looked into. And I fell in love with my father.”

Gutenberg wrote a book about his journey as a caregiver for the man he calls his hero. It’s called “It’s time to say thank you.” “My mother and his father were not close,” he said. “My grandfather was cold. He wasn’t the kind of father who would kiss or hug my father. So my father was the opposite.

A “kissing and hugging father” who worked jobs that weren’t exactly sensitive. “He was an Army Airborne Ranger. He was a New York City cop. He was a powerlifter and a weightlifter. He did a 20-minute handstand.”

Guttenberg’s father was one, so it was a surprise to Steve that when he wanted to move to Los Angeles, at just 17, to try to become a movie star, he was allowed to do so. “My parents gave me $300 and said, ‘You have two weeks.’ And I got a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. My parents let me stay another two weeks. I got a little movie (“Chicken Chronicles”). And I got more commercials. And after that, I stayed Literally for a year, before I dropped out and went back to school.

He hadn’t been in school long when Hollywood invited him back. “I was at a party at my ward at Albany State, and I got this call from my agent. Everyone was a little…drunk!” he laughed. “And my agent said, ‘I got an audition for you.’ It was called ‘Boys From Brazil.’ And it was It is set to star Greg Peck, Larry Olivier, James Mason, and Uta Hagen.

“It’s hard to say no to that, isn’t it?” I said.

“Yes! I asked my father. My father said, ‘You know, just come down and take the test.’ If you get it, you decide. And I got the job.”

Guttenberg says it was Laurence Olivier who taught him humility, but it was his father who helped him get his big break in a small film about a group of misfits who join the police force. “I told my dad I had a screen test coming up for this movie, ‘Police Academy.’ And he said, ‘Oh, you should wear my Police Academy T-shirt.’” I remember going to the screen test, and I was up against another actor who was really talented. And the director said, Wait here, boy, did you make this shirt? And I said, ‘No, this is the real shirt my father wears at the police academy.’ And half a day later my agent called me and said, ‘I got it. Maybe it’s because of the cadet shirt my father gave me.’

Guttenberg would go on to become one of the busiest actors of his generation, starring in more than 100 films and TV shows, including “Diner,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Cocoon” and “Short Circuit.” All the while his father was ready to bring him back to reality, often calling before the rest of Los Angeles even got out of bed. Guttenberg says he never missed a 6:00 a.m. call. “No, I always had to be home at six in the morning. Even if you get home at 5 to 6:00! I had to answer that phone. He was my anchor.”

So, when his father was diagnosed with kidney failure while living in Phoenix, Guttenberg got into his car, driving 400 miles every week to care for his father. “The trip really gave me time to think, time to be thankful,” he said.

Steve and his brothers even became home dialysis technicians, but he was the only one who couldn’t accept the inevitable. “I hugged him. And something didn’t seem right. We had a nurse, and the nurse put a stethoscope on him. She said, ‘He’s gone.’ And I said, ‘No!’ And I started doing CPR on him. I couldn’t accept it at that moment.”

When asked when he could finally let him go, Gutenberg replied: “Maybe I let him go after a year. It’s hard to believe he’s gone. I still think he’s here.”

“It is,” I said. “Just say his name.”

“Stanley!”

In the meantime, Gutenberg believes his father is sending him some useful advice. “I feel like my dad is there, yeah, I really feel that. I feel like my dad is here with me. And I think he’s also saying: ‘Steven, enough’. Get out of there.”

Until now, his house stands. But Steve Guttenberg says it’s time to listen to his father. “The reality is that no matter how big your house is, no matter how much money you have, how expensive your car is, in the end, you’re walking down the street with a little bag of some stuff. That you saved, and you’re looking for someone to tell you where to go.”

Read an excerpt: “Time to Thank You: Caregiving for My Hero” by Steve Guttenberg

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Produced by Anthony Lodato. Editors: Steven Tyler and Lauren Barnello.

Exclusively online: Watch an extended interview with Steve Guttenberg