DiCaprio helps in rescue of man who fell from cruise ship
Several days after Leonardo DiCaprio listened at the Golden Globes to costar Brad Pitt joke about his character’s watery demise in “Titanic,” news emerged that the actor helped rescue a man from suffering that same fate in real life.
DiCaprio, while vacationing in the Caribbean last month, helped in the search for a man who had spent 11 hours treading water, the Daily Mail and The Sun reported.
A source told the Daily Mail that the “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star was cruising on a boat off the coast of the island of St. Barts on Dec. 30. The Daily Mail published photos of DiCaprio on the boat that day, showing that his actress girlfriend, Camila Morrone, 22, was with him.
The boat’s captain came to DiCaprio, 45, and said he had heard that a French man, 24, had fallen off a cruise ship.
The Sun said the man worked on the Club Med ship and been drinking when he fell overboard. The Oscar winner immediately agreed that the vessel should aid in the search, the Daily Mail said. Apparently, hours had passed since the man had fallen overboard.
By that time, DiCaprio’s boat was the only vessel looking for him, the Daily Mail and Sun said. People on DiCaprio’s boat looked for the man for hours in rough seas. Just before nightfall and as a rainstorm moved in, the crew spotted the man in the water, waving his hands, the tabloids said. The crew was able to pull the man out of the water, with the captain describing the rescue as a “one in a million shot.”
The Sun reported that the man, identified only as Victor, sobbed as he was hauled on board. “I should have died,” he said. He was given food, drink and clothes before being passed off to authorities.
On Sunday, DiCaprio was at the Golden Globes, where he had been nominated for best actor in a comedy or musical for his performance in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
He didn’t win, but Pitt earned a supporting actor statue for the film. In thanking DiCaprio as “an all-star” and as “a gent,” Pitt said, “I wouldn’t be here without you man.” He then quipped, in a reference to “Titanic,” “I would have shared the raft.”