Bob Odenkirk has credited CPR and being in “good shape” for the film Nobody for saving his life after he suffered a heart attack.

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The actor, who is best known for starring in Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul, had a heart attack in New Mexico last July while shooting the AMC series.

Speaking on The Howard Stern Show on Monday (February 28), Odenkirk said he “would have been dead” if it hadn’t been for someone on set starting CPR immediately.

The health officer on the series then ran to her car for a defibrillator after around “12 minutes of CPR”, which was used on the actor three times.

“Which is actually a lot,” Odenkirk said. “I was told later when the defibrillator doesn’t work once, that’s not good. When it doesn’t work the second time, that is kind of like – forget it. But then they jacked it up a third time, and it got me back to a rhythm.”

Speaking about how working out for film Nobody also contributed to saving his life, Odenkirk said: “One of the things that saved me was I learned how to work out. Because I was in good shape, you kind of enlarge some of the other veins around your heart, if you work out a lot.

“And I was told then that more blood was able to go to my heart during CPR because these veins were just a little bit bigger from a lot of working out.”

The morning after, Odenkirk had surgery that successfully cleared the plaque in his hearts’ left anterior.

“Take CPR classes, because you can save lives with them,” Odenkirk added.

The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul is scheduled to premiere on April 18 on AMC in the US. The first two episodes will be released on Netflix April 19 in the UK.