Playing a dim-witted barman on hit 1980s sitcom Cheers helped Woody Harrelson avoid a vicious death in Croatia.
The actor recalls befriending the wrong red-hot girls during a day out at the beach in Dubrovnik and becoming a target for their angry boyfriends, who were part of a tough gang.
He tells Playboy magazine, "These guys were coming down from the hillside. They were the toughest-looking motherf**kers you ever saw - some kind of Croatian judo gang or something - and they were coming down basically to kill me for being with these red-hot girls.
"They were ready to tear me apart, and it got mind-blowingly tense. But then one of these f**king guys recognises me from American TV, so we end up going out for drinks with them.
"I swear if I had not been on Cheers, I'd have died right there on that beach in Croatia."