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Filmmaker Kevin Smith tweets he had 'massive heart attack'

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“If I hadn’t canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would’ve died tonight.”
Kevin Smith tweeted fans early Monday that he had suffered a “massive heart attack” after shooting a comedy special in the Los Angeles area.
“If I hadn’t canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would’ve died tonight,” Smith tweeted from the hospital. “But for now, I’m still above ground!”
Smith, the 47-year-old filmmaker (“Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy”), writer and star of the AMC reality series “Comic Book Men”, was reportedly shooting “Kevin Smith Live!”, his new standup special, in Glendale, California.
After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack. The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka “the Widow-Maker”). If I hadn’t canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would’ve died tonight. But for now, I’m still above ground! pic.twitter.com/M5gSnW9E5h
Smith, whose feature directing career has spanned his breakthrough 1994 hit “Clerks” to 2016’s “Yoga Hosers,” had posted on Facebook hours earlier about his show taping.
Smith, who shoots “Comic Book Men” in his native Red Bank, N. J., recently appeared in the 2017 film “Disaster Artist,” and had directed recent episodes of CW’s “The Flash” and “Supergirl.”
Smith’s screenplay for his 1997 film “Chasing Amy,” starring Ben Affleck and Jason Lee as comic-book creators, received a Spirit Award. Smith himself has written comics for such characters as Daredevil, Green Hornet and Batman, and he famously financed his indie Sundance hit “Clerks” partly by selling his cherished comics collection.
As a performer, Smith debuted his Silent Bob character in “Clerks” as a mute comic foil to fellow slacker Jay, played by Jason Mewes. In 2013, Smith staged a reunion tour with Mewes, anchored by their podcast and a new “Jay and Silent Bob Super Groovy Cartoon Movie.”
Smith told The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs in 2013 that the film was “a benchmark of his sobriety” in referring to his longtime friend Mewes, who had battled addictions to heroin and OxyContin.
Fans and fellow celebrities, including Chris Pratt, tweeted their concern and wishes to Smith early Monday:
“Praying for you. I will continue to. You inspired me with Clerks when I was a senior HS. I’m tagging my Lb/rb football coach who showed me the movie cause he believed in me and knew I’d be inspired,” Pratt wrote on Twitter.

(c) 2018, The Washington Post. Michael Cavna wrote this story.

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