Actor Harry Dean Stanton Hurt in Home Robbery

Actor Harry Dean Stanton, who built his career playing grizzled outsiders in films such as “Repo Man” and “Alien,” was tied up and injured in a weekend home invasion robbery, Los Angeles police said Sunday.

Two men were arrested late Saturday after a tracking device was activated in Stanton’s car, which the thieves had taken and eventually crashed when chased by police.

A shaken Stanton was at home Sunday in his Mulholland Drive house above Sherman Oaks, fielding calls from well-wishers.

“I got robbed and thought I was going to die. Aside from that, everything is great,” Stanton said to one, displaying the bitter, world-weary sense of humor that has characterized many of his acting roles.

Stanton, 69, had bruises around both eyes, where his assailants had forced a gun to his face.

“I was lying there, thinking how it’s going to feel when [my] head explodes,” Stanton said, puffing a cigarette. A friend, actor Ed Begley Jr., was on hand to help him deal with the deluge of calls.

Stanton said three men appeared at his door about 8 p.m. Saturday. When he opened it, they pulled guns, forced their way in and threw him to the floor, he said. “They said, ‘Don’t move.’ I was not in a moving mood,” he said.

They didn’t directly threaten his life. “A pistol in your eye is enough of a threat,” he said.

After forcing him into his bedroom and tying him up, the attackers took an unspecified amount of cash, stole a VCR and compact disc player, and fled in his 1995 Lexus, Stanton said. After the robbers left, Stanton was able to free himself and call police.

Police said they found the abandoned Lexus two hours later, parked on a North Hollywood street, after its LoJack security device was activated. Officers from the Van Nuys Division of the Los Angeles Police Department set up a surveillance on the car.

A short time later, police said, a second car with two passengers pulled up, and one man got out and entered the Lexus. At that point, a police pursuit began.

The driver of the second car was quickly caught, police said, and the Lexus crashed into a parked car during the chase. The Lexus driver tried to flee on foot but was captured, LAPD spokeswoman Stacy Blodgett said.

The suspects, Jose Enrique Rivera, 18, and Alberto Guerrero, 20, both of North Hollywood, were arrested on suspicion of robbery, police said. Officers were searching for the third suspect Sunday, Blodgett said.

Stanton’s house is partway down a canyon off Mulholland Drive and is not visible from the street. Asked whether the robbers had chosen his house at random, Stanton said, “There’s a lot of information that I can’t even talk about.”

He referred inquiries to the police, who he said did a great job.

Police said they did not know if Stanton was targeted.

Stanton said he has lived in the house 15 years. Asked whether he will stay on, he glanced around his wood-paneled living room, decorated with pictures of his band, the Harry Dean Stanton Band, for which he sings and plays harmonica. “I can’t answer that at the moment,” he said.

Though shaken, he said the experience taught him something about himself. “I think I’m blessed with a pretty tough psyche,” he said.