Cracks me up that 83 year old Clint could manhandle a big guy like this. Kudos to him. Everyone should know the Heimlich!
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Dirty Harry had his back — and for that Steve John is eternally grateful.
John, 50, is chief executive officer of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation and tour****nt director of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. He was talking to Clint Eastwood at the tour****nt’s volunteer dinner Wednesday night, when John started Choking on a piece of cheese.
Clint Eastwood, fortunately, was lurking behind Steve John on Wednesday night. (AP photo)
Eastwood, 83, immediately leaped into action, lifting John off the ground as he successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver.
“I don’t know how a guy that age picked up a guy my size, but he did,” John said in a phone interview this morning.
Eastwood, known mostly for his acclaimed career as an actor and director, is a part owner of Pebble Beach and an active, behind-the-scenes presence at the tour****nt.
“I gave him three good jolts, and that got it out,” Eastwood told the Carmel Pine Cone. “The look on Steve’s face was different than when some**** is just coughing or joking around. I looked in his eyes and saw that look of panic people have when they see their life passing before their very eyes. It looked bad.” The dinner is an annual event on the night before the start of the AT&T Pro-Am, as a way to thank the event’s 2,100 volunteers. Clay Walker, Darius Rucker, Kenny G, Ray Romano and T-Bone Burnett were among the entertainers who performed at Wednesday night’s dinner at the Monterey Convention Center (they also are playing in the golf tour****nt).
John was drinking water and having a couple of appetizers when he began choking. The next thing he knew, Eastwood had popped loose the piece of cheese.
“I probably shouldn’t have been eating and talking at the same time,” John said. “I was kind of blurry afterward, but I thanked him profusely. I started to drink water (afterward), and Clint said I needed lemon in the water. He knew the acid helps. … I’ve got a lucky angel, man."