"30 Rock" actor Dean Winters, who had a brush with death after his heart stopped one year ago, said he is indebted to co-star and pal Tina Fey.
“Tina Fey is the most caring woman I’ve worked with in this business,” Winters told Niteside last night at Lucky Strike Lanes during nightlife kingpin Matt DeMatt's birthday bash.
“When I was going through a really hard time she pulled me out, and I have a debt of gratitude to her I’m not sure I can ever repay.”
A bacterial infection caused Winters to collapse and his heart to stop beating for two minutes on June 19 of last year. Fey was instrumental in bringing him back to the set of the NBC show, he told the New York Post last year.
The health scare is a terrifying incident the actor, also from "Oz" and "Rescue Me," told Niteside that he is still struggling to recover from.
“Life was rocking and rolling for me and then it just stopped,” Winters said. “So now I’m learning how to press the play button again.”
The 45-year old said he values relationships more than he did before the incident.
“I learned what love is and what friendship is and those are things I think I took for granted for a while,” Winters said. “Whatever I went through in this past year, it was worth it.”
He also said that his roles on "30 Rock" and "Oz" were dream jobs -- but Winters still has at least one career goal.
“I just would love to rumble with Clint [Eastwood],” he said. “I would like to play his son or his long-lost son or whatever.”
