"Up-and-coming actor James "P.J." Ransone, who can be seen on-screen now in Spike Lee's "Inside Man," became a real-life action hero on Monday night when he saved a woman in New York City from a brutal rapist, reports New York Post "Page Six" gossip columnist Richard Johnson.

This is what happened: Ransone was sitting at his computer in his Lower East Side apartment writing an e-mail to a friend and studying for an audition when he heard the muffled cries of a woman pleading for help. He called 911 and then wearing only pajama bottoms without shoes, socks or a shirt, he grabbed a metal bar and followed the sound of the cries. He pounded down the steps to the vestibule of the apartment building. "There was this Hispanic guy in a blue sweatshirt choking my neighbor and pulling his [sex organ] out," Ransone told Page Six's Lisa Marsh. "I pictured my mom, my girlfriend and every girl I've ever loved and thought, 'Vengeance is mine.'"

The would-be rapist fled with Ransone, who is hardly imposing at just 5-foot-9, in hot pursuit. He yelled for a friend who was walking a dog to join him in the chase. Finally, he caught up with the assailant as he was entering a building. Ransone broke a glass door to get at him and smacked him on the back with that metal bar he was carrying. "I said, 'You rapist piece of [bleep]' and heard a crack when I hit his shoulder blade," Ransone recalled to Page Six. "He mimed taking out a gun and said, 'Do you want to go to jail?'--and made a bee-line for the door." But Ransone kept swinging at him. Finally, the police arrived. An arrest is expected soon.

Meanwhile, Page Six reports that the police were so impressed they are trying to recruit Ransone. "They told me I could still go on auditions during the day and work nights." He just has one request of casting directors: "I don't want any casting directors telling me I'm not tough enough," he says."

I got this from Netscape.com. Pretty cool, don't really know him from any movies (i'll have to check them out), but i really respect him.