Benedict Cumberbatch may only play a superhero in Marvel blockbusters, but he proved to possess real life hero qualities when he stepped in to saved a man who was being beaten by four attackers last year.
Cumberbatch was in an Uber one night in London when he witnessed a young food delivery boy being attacked, the driver, Manuel Dias, told The New York Times.
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Dias said he hadn’t recognized the couple – who turned out to be the actor and his wife — in his back seat until Cumberbatch jumped out and yelled at the attackers to leave the cyclist alone.
“Then it all got a bit surreal,” he explained. “Here was Sherlock Holmes fighting off four attackers just round the corner from Baker Street.”
Cumberbatch, who played Sherlock Holmes on the BBC and PBS television series “Sherlock,” then worked alongside Dias to stop the attack.
“I had hold of one lad and Benedict another. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He was very brave. He did most of it, to be honest,” Dias said. “They tried to hit him but he defended himself and pushed them away. He wasn’t injured. Then I think they also recognized it was Benedict and ran away.”
London’s Metropolitan Police said they received a call around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 25 detailing an assault on a man in his 20s.
The group of attackers got away, but nothing appeared to be stolen, police said in the statement, making no mention of Cumberbatch.
Cumberbatch told The Sun that he had no choice but to intervene.
“I did it out of, well, I had to, you know,” he said.
(H/T: The New York Times)