Clint Eastwood Photo:IC

Hollywood's iconic good guy, Clint Eastwood, is also a real life hero after swooping to rescue a choking guest at a California reception.

"Clint saved my life," Steve John told The Carmel Pine Cone, the local newspaper where the actor once served as mayor in the 1980s.

During a reception late Wednesday for a golf tournament in Carmel-by-the-Sea, John was eating and chatting, only to get a piece of cheese stuck in his windpipe.

"Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. It was as bad as it could have been," recalled the director of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament in California.

"Clint knew exactly what to do."

The award-winning actor and director told the local paper that he saw in John "that look of panic people have when they see their life passing before their eyes."

Eastwood, 83, moved behind John to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

"I gave him three good jolts," the mega star recalled.