Star Wars star Mark Hamill told his followers on Instagram that he had fled his Malibu home on Tuesday.
“Evacuated Malibu so last-minute there were small fires on both sides of the road as we approached PCH,” he wrote, referring to the Pacific Coast Highway, a scenic road that connects seafront settlements.
Hamill said he and his wife Marilou York, along with a pet dog, had gone to their daughter’s Hollywood home to escape what he dubbed the “most horrific fire since ’93.”
PREMIERES CANCELLED
Meanwhile, several major Hollywood events were abruptly called off due to the disaster.
The annual Critics Choice Awards gala, which honours the year’s best in film and television and is attended by dozens of A-list stars, was postponed from this Sunday to January 26.
Anderson’s premiere for The Last Showgirl was scrapped due to the unfolding disaster, while Paramount also cancelled a glitzy red-carpet screening of the Robbie Williams musical film Better Man.
Netflix pulled the plug on a press conference for its Golden Globe winner Emilia Perez.
A live announcement to unveil this year’s Screen Actors Guild nominations was abandoned on Wednesday morning, in favor of a simple press release.
Filming of Los Angeles-based shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Hacks and Jimmy Kimmel Live was paused.
And the Universal Studios theme park was closed for the day due to the extreme winds and fire conditions.
‘BURN’
Steve Guttenberg – star of 1984 comedy Police Academy – was among those helping get people out of Pacific Palisades as the fire began spreading on Tuesday.
The Cocoon actor expressed frustration at how some of those fleeing the blaze had abandoned their cars on one of the only roads in and out of the ritzy neighbourhood.
“If you leave your car… leave the key in there so a guy like me can move your car so that these fire trucks can get up there. It’s really, really important,” he told a live television broadcast.
Reality TV personalities Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from The Hills, an MTV show that ran until 2010, said they had lost their house after evacuating.
“I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt wrote on Snapchat.
