Emmy-winning actor Woody Harrelson was arrested in London after an incident in a taxi that ended in a bizarre police chase, it was reported today.
Harrelson, who portrayed the dim-witted but good-hearted bartender Woody Boyd on the now-classic NBC sitcom Cheers, was arrested in Sloane Square, West London, early Thursday morning.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard told BBC News that police responded at 2 a.m. Thursday to reports of a man having allegedly caused criminal damage to a taxi and then fleeing the vehicle.
“Shortly afterwards, a 40-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage,” the spokesman said.
The actor was said to have smashed a door lock and an ashtray in the back of a taxi before jumping out and hailing another cab.
Taxi driver Les Dartnell told UK’s The Sun he was hailed by Harrelson outside the China White nightclub in Piccadilly and asked to be taken to his hotel. The 40-year-old actor then reportedly started damaging the taxi’s interior before jumping out.
“He was kicking the glass and trying to get out. I tried to find a space to pull over, but he had already yanked back the door handle and broken it,” Dartnell told the tabloid. “It was like something out of Hollywood. I stayed hot on the tail of the taxi and knew the police were on their way.”
Police eventually intercepted the taxi, but Harrelson apparently took off on foot before officers chased him down and arrested him.
Harrelson was taken to a London police station and later released on bail. He is due to return on July 1, pending a report to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether or not he would face charges, BBC News reported.
Harrelson starred in the 1992 comedy White Men Can’t Jump and Oliver Stone’s controversial Natural Born Killers in 1994. His film Scorched was recently shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
