30 Rock, Oz Star Dean Winters Talks About What It Felt Like to Die

Oz and 30 Rock thesp opens up about the near-death experience he had last year

By Josh Grossberg Jun 18, 2010 4:15 PMTags
Dean WintersDimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

Dean Winters is just glad to be alive.

The actor, best known for playing Ryan O'Reilly on HBO's critically acclaimed prison drama Oz, Tommy's younger brother, Johnny Gavin, on FX's Rescue Me and Liz Lemon's crazy ex-boyfriend on 30 Rock, is finally opening up about a near-death experience he had last year.

In an interview with the New York Post, the 45-year-old Winters recounted how he came down with a fever and then a severe bacterial infection at his New York residence in July 2009 that caused his heart to stop beating for two and a half minutes and almost left him on the outside looking in.

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