Actor John Malkovich helped save the life of a man bleeding severely on the street in Toronto on Saturday, according to media reports in Canada.

An Ohio tourist named Jim Walpole, 77, tripped on the sidewalk after leaving a restaurant in downtown Toronto on King Street East. Walpole slashed his throat on some scaffolding and began bleeding profusely.

According to the reports, the Oscar-nominated actor was standing outside smoking a cigarette and, hearing the cries of Walpole's wife, rushed to the assistance of the injured man and applied pressure to the bleeding with his scarf until paramedics arrived.

"The way he was spurting I thought it was the carotid [artery] or the jugular [vein]," said Walpole’s wife Marilyn, who is a retired nurse.

The 59-year-old actor is in Toronto starring in The Giacomo Variations at the Elgin Theatre.

Walpole told CBC News: "I asked, 'What's your name?' He said, 'John.' And I didn't ask the last name because I didn't figure I'd remember it anyhow."

He added that Malkovich "took over just like a doctor."

Walpole was taken to a local hospital where he received stitches and was released.