Coronation Street star Charlie Lawson has revealed he almost quit acting after a stroke last year left him an “emotional wreck”.
The actor, who played Jim McDonald, said one of the side effects after suffering a ‘mini-stroke’ on stage last October, was that he couldn’t stop crying.
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The 59-year-old actor fell ill during a performance of Rebus: The Long Shadows in Edinburgh last year.
He told the Daily Star: “It has clearly not affected my speech or anything like that, but what it has done has affected my emotions, which is most peculiar.
“Two months ago if I was doing an interview you’d have to stop and say: ‘Charlie, go and stand there for two minutes’.
“It affected me emotionally.”
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Charlie, who has appeared on Coronation Street on and off for the past 30 years, was diagnosed a month before the attack with exhaustion after not sleeping properly for a month and losing a stone in weight.
The Northern Irish actor said he was planning on getting counselling to help him recover.
He said: “I have promised myself and the two doctors that I know in the village that I will go and talk to someone about it because it clearly helps, because it knocked me for six.”
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Recalling the moment he collapsed he said he started to go “deaf” and then “woke up on the floor in the wings”.
He told BBC Radio Ulster: “I consider that the way I was feeling mentally at the time I’m surprised that my brain didn’t just explode, so I’m lucky.
“All the scans show that my heart is brilliant, there’s no valve problem, there’s no clot, it was down to stress.”
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Charlie, who has previously spoken about his battles with alcohol, said the health scare had forced him to cut back on his drinking.
The soap star returned to the cobbles last year to con ex-wife Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard) out of money by convincing her their late daughter Katie was still alive. When Liz found out he was lying she reported him to the police.
Beverley Callard has hinted she thinks Jim may return in the future saying: “I don’t think they are finished.”
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