Who was the first actor to have their star stolen from the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Once you gain your star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, you would think your status as an icon has been both literally and figuratively cemented.
Yet for an unfortunate select few, their places in the film league of legends was never fully set in stone until they genuinely got hold of a stronger mix of tar, because they hold the rather unwanted titles of having their stars stolen from the walk, despite the illustrious careers, achievements and triumphs they had won in order to get them there.
In total, four stars have become the victims of thefts in their time on the walk, but oddly enough, ever since the first plaques were permanently placed in 1960, the streak of crimes has only occurred within the last 25 years, beginning in 2000. As much as they distinguished themselves as the finest actors of their generation, one thing James Stewart and Kirk Douglas may rather not have been known for was that their stars were the first to have been nicked, after they had been temporarily removed at the start of the millennium to undergo reconstruction.
Eventually, they were traced and recovered from the home of one of the construction workers, although they were in an extremely damaged condition upon their rediscovery and had to be remade. Whoever that worker may have been, you would imagine that they would have a hefty criminal record, as well as the lack of a job, to pay for after that. But, indeed, Stewart and Douglas were not the only ones to fall under the wrath of some lawless minds on the Walk thereafter.
What other stars have been stolen from the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
When both Stewart and Douglas became part of the inaugural class of stars to gain their places on the walk back in 1960, they might have imagined that their landmarks would keep their memories and legacies alive, even long after they were gone. They have certainly done that, but the stealing of their stars some four decades later also evidently inspired work from actors of a very different kind of spectre and disposition.
‘America’s favourite singing cowboy’, Gene Autry, had one of his five stars also stolen from a construction site close to the time that Stewart and Douglas’ disappeared – but in fairness, although it was eventually restored, he still had another four plaques to make up for the missing one. In the end, it was poor Gregory Peck that wasn’t quite so lucky, as his star was stolen in 2005 by a gang of thieves and never relocated, so he had to have a whole fresh landmark made in his honour.
Of course, when you have a string of landmarks of such statures all quite literally lined up one in front of the other, with very little security surrounding them, it’s inevitable that some stars run the risk of being seized. It has to be said that it would be in an actor’s nature to have a bit of real-life high stakes drama associated with their name, but when it comes to their place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, you would imagine they would rather stay cemented right where they are.
