Sutherland tells of 'death experience'

Donald Sutherland saw "the white light" when he died for a "few seconds" while filming 'Kelly's Heroes'.

The 76-year-old actor played the part of Sergeant Oddball in the 1970 comedy/war film, and during the middle of shooting he was hit with a bout of spinal meningitis, causing him to go into a coma and he admits he "dug his feet in" so as not to pass away.

He said: "I got sick in the middle of shooting 'Kelly's Heroes'. I came to Yugoslavia for a day's filming and I was out for six weeks.

"They took me to hospital – I had spinal meningitis. They didn't have the antibiotics, so I went into a coma, and they tell me that for a few seconds, I died. I saw the blue tunnel, and I started going down it. I saw the white light. I dug my feet in."

However, Donald was tempted for a second to stop fighting to stay alive.

He added: "I didn't want to go – but it was incredibly tempting. You just go: 'Aw, s**t man, why not?'. "