'John Malkovich saved my life': Actor comes to the rescue of elderly man who accidentally slit throat

When Jim Walpole accidentally slit his throat in a fall, Malkovich was the first on the scene and applied pressure to the wound until the ambulance arrived

John Malkovich has been credited with saving the life of a 77-year-old man who accidentally slit his throat on scaffolding (Getty Images)

John Malkovich is not normally cast in heroic roles. But the Hollywood actor, star of Being John Malkovich, has been credited with saving the life of a 77-year-old who accidentally slit his throat in a fall.

Jim Walpole, a retired General Motors car technician from Defiance, Ohio claims “John Malkovich saved my life” following an accident on Thursday last week.

Jim and his wife Marilyn had been on a weekend bus tour to Toronto, Canada - where Malkovich is performing at the Elgin Theatre – with fellow American senior citizens.

The group were staying at the King Edward Hotel and the accident took place after Jim and Marilyn went out for a walk and the former “just stumbled” immediately outside the building.

“Bang, I feel right into the scaffolding along the hotel wall,” Jim said in an interview with the Toronto Sun. He had cut his neck open badly and was bleeding profusely.

Marilyn started yelling for help: “The blood was coming out so fast,” she said.

A man, later identified as Malkovich, arrived at the scene of the accident.

“He started to press of my neck,” Jim said. “He was trying to stop the bleeding.”

A passerby, Ben Quinn, arrived later and was asked by Malkovich to continue applying pressure to Jim’s neck.

“The guy really seemed to know what he was doing,” Quinn said. “We didn’t know who he was. I just asked if I could hold the man’s head and he said yes.”

The third person on the scene was the hotel’s doorman Chris Mathias who called the emergency services.

Jim remained conscious until paramedics arrived.

“I owe them all my life,” Jim said. “But the first guy really seemed to know what to do.”

When he was about to be whisked away in an ambulance Jim turned to the stranger and said: “What’s your name?”

He said: “My name is John and you are going to be alright.”

Malkovich, 59, is currently appearing at the Elgin as Casanova in The Giacomo Variations.

“Any citizen would do the same, it's nothing special,” the actor told CTV.