The reformed drug addict Christian Bale played in The Fighter has been credited with saving his mother's life - by shouting at her.
Bale admits he was stunned when he heard the story of how Dicky Ecklund brought his mum back from the dead at the beginning of the month.
Recalling the amazing story to news show Access Hollywood, the actor says, "His mother actually was declared dead for 30 minutes and then Dicky arrived and they've got this wonderfully close relationship. Dicky shouted at her, said, 'Come on, wake up mum,' and she did.
"The nurses said they'd never seen anything like it; it was straight out of Lazarus. It was just phenomenal. That woman is one tough cookie."
In fact news of Alice Ward's death leaked out before her recovery - and was reported during the telecast of Ruslan Provodnikov's boxing match against Mauricio Herrera in Las Vegas on 7 January (11).
Ward, who was portrayed by Melissa Leo in the boxing movie, is currently recovering from her brief death.
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