Bob Odenkirk Finally Reveals the Full Chaos of His Near-Fatal Heart Attack on the ‘Better Call Saul’ Set

Few television performances in recent memory have left an imprint quite like Bob Odenkirk’s work across AMC’s flagship crime universe. His portrayal of Jimmy McGill and his alter ego Saul Goodman stretched across eleven seasons of ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ combined, cementing him as one of the most compelling figures in prestige television history.

That legacy, however, was nearly cut short in devastating fashion. In July 2021, while shooting what would become the sixth and final season of ‘Better Call Saul’, Odenkirk collapsed on set at 58 years old, the result of a build-up of plaque that had blocked an artery. On the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast in 2025, the actor revealed it had been a Widowmaker heart attack, a particularly severe cardiac event caused by a blockage of the left anterior descending artery.

Now, in a candid new interview with The Times of London, Odenkirk has given what may be his most detailed and emotionally raw account of the incident yet. He described collapsing on set, with co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian rushing to grab him as they screamed for help, only for nearby crew members to mistake their cries for laughter, causing precious delays in the emergency response. The pandemic-era filming restrictions in place at the time meant cast and crew were spread unusually far apart across the studio floor, making the situation considerably more dangerous than it might otherwise have been.

When the on-set medic finally arrived, Odenkirk says the person had never performed CPR and was at a loss for what to do. It was ultimately health and safety supervisor Rosa Estrada and assistant director Angie Meyer who stepped in to administer CPR and connect the actor to an automated defibrillator. The device failed to produce a stable heart rhythm on the first two attempts, with the third attempt finally restoring it.

Odenkirk has virtually no memory of the week he spent at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque following the emergency. He reflected on the eerie absence of any near-death experience, noting that his first recollection after the collapse was his discharge conversation with a doctor an entire week later. He described those initial weeks of recovery as a profound gift, a period during which he felt unusually present and engaged with the world around him.

The ‘Better Call Saul’ co-creator Peter Gould later admitted that in the immediate aftermath of the heart attack, the production team genuinely did not know whether the show would be able to continue, or whether they were prepared to simply walk away from it. Odenkirk ultimately returned to the set that September, and the final season completed production and aired to widespread critical acclaim.

In the years since, Odenkirk has made meaningful lifestyle adjustments, cutting back on sugar and beginning a daily regimen of statins, aspirin, and metoprolol, a beta-blocker used to manage blood pressure. The fact that he had not retreated to his trailer that afternoon, a decision that by his own account almost certainly saved his life, remains one of the more quietly extraordinary details in an already remarkable story of survival.

Whether you have been following Odenkirk since his ‘Breaking Bad’ days or were drawn in by the full arc of ‘Better Call Saul’, it is hard not to feel something hearing him describe how close that set came to losing him entirely, so share your thoughts on his story in the comments.