Playing an action hero is a lot different to becoming one in real life, although Johnny Depp didn’t need to test out his extensive stunt training after thwarting a mugging without saying a single word.

The actor has never been the type to star in a conventional action movie, and when he did it for the first time in the 1995 thriller Nick of Time, he acknowledged that the end results were nothing to write home about and he’d only signed onto the project because he wanted to work with Christopher Walken.

Of course, the defining role of his lengthy career would come when he played Jack Sparrow for the first time in 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, which saw the swashbuckling hero become an instant cinematic icon and land him the first Academy Award nomination of his career into the bargain.

He’d go on to play the role four more times as the law of diminishing returns began to set in, but even though he was dropped from the franchise by Disney in the face of his legal issues and has ruled out ever returning to the part, he keeps hold of the costume and regularly dons it for the purpose of bringing joy to his younger fans.

It was an altogether different type of situation that saw Sparrow come in handy on the streets after a would-be assailant decided that getting on the wrong side of the eccentric pirate wasn’t a risk worth taking. When taking a stroll through Los Angeles with friend, musician, and Babybird founder Stephen Jones in 2010, the latter was pinpointed as the perfect target for a mugging.

However, when Depp rushed to the rescue, the perpetrator let out an exasperated “I ain’t stealing from Captain Jack” and fled, per The New York Post. Even though the mugger had approached Jones with a broken bottle to demand he hand over his cash, Depp’s mere presence was enough to frighten him off.

In the end, Depp put his hand in his own pocket to send the prospective attacker on their way, but not before telling him to “straighten up your life”. Just like that, a crime had been avoided, with Jones undoubtedly grateful that he happened to have a superstar acquaintance by his side.

The year proved to be a hugely eventful one for Depp and Jones’ association, with the Hollywood A-lister helping to finance the release of Babybird’s tenth studio album Ex-Maniac, while he additionally played guitar on the single ‘Unloveable’ and directed the accompanying music video. It was also Depp who introduced Jones to producers Bruce Witkin and Ryan Dorn, who themselves would go on to become frequent collaborators of the group.