Nick Nolte, shown here at the premiere of the The Spiderwick Chronicles in January, escaped a fire at his Malibu home on Tuesday. (Dan Steinberg/Associated Press)

Actor Nick Nolte broke through a window to escape a fire at his Los Angeles home on Tuesday and tried to put it out with a garden hose before firefighters arrived.

The 67-year-old star of Cape Fear and Affliction inhaled some smoke and scraped his arm, but wasn't hospitalized.

The fire was reported at 11:34 a.m. and firefighters found Nolte outside the house in a secluded part of Malibu, Los Angeles County fire inspector Sam Padilla told the Associated Press.

The electrical fire started in the living room. Nolte smelled smoke from upstairs and broke a window to get out of the house.

It took firefighters 10 minutes to put out the blaze that damaged part of the house and its contents.

Padilla said the damage was estimated at $1.5 million US.

Nolte's publicist, Arnold Robinson, said the actor was grateful to firefighters and police for their help.

Nolte can currently be seen in the comedy Tropic Thunder, and will soon appear in British director Anthony Waller's thriller Nine Miles Down.

With files from the Associated Press