Audiences may know actor Dean Winters for his dramatic roles on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Oz,” or for his recurring appearances on “30 Rock” as Liz Lemon’s sleazy but inexplicably irresistible ex, Dennis.
Or perhaps they recognize Winters, 57, as “Mayhem” from the popular Allstate commercials, but what many don’t realize is that for the past 12 years, the actor has been living “in pain” due to multiple amputations.
Winters recently spoke with Page Six, sharing that he has “neuropathy on, you know, on a whole different level where I can’t feel my hands and my feet. But if I stepped on a pebble, it’s like I go through the roof.”
After contracting a bacterial infection in June of 2009, Winters had a high fever and after waking up “the color gray,” tried to go to the doctor but went into cardiac arrest on the way, reports People.
Though paramedics revived Winters after two minutes during an ambulance ride, he needed several operations and, due to gangrene, had two toes and half of a thumb amputated.
Winters shared that he has “been sucking it up because, you know, the alternative is not a place where I want to be” but admitted that it’s a “weird dichotomy.”
Despite the tough circumstances, he has continued to work through the pain and will star in “Joe Exotic,” the upcoming Peacock adaptation of the hit Netflix documentary show “Tiger King.”
Winters will play Jeff Lowe, the sometimes-villain of the docuseries. To prepare for the role he had to gain 20 pounds, which he did by microwaving pints of ice cream and drinking them like smoothies, according to Page Six.
The second season of “Tiger King” is slated to premiere on Netflix on November 17, and promises a return to the drama and chaos surrounding the Greater Wynewood Exotic Animal Park and its former owner Joe Maldonado-Passage, otherwise known as Joe Exotic.
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