BERNIE MAC - BERNIE TALKED HIMSELF OUT OF DYING

OCEAN'S TWELVE star BERNIE MAC talked himself out of dying when he contracted double pneumonia last year (04).

The funnyman has spent months fighting the illness, and had to cancel all work commitments for two months.

He says, "I was getting a massage and after the massage I asked the lady to give me a towel and I had to use the washroom and the washroom was like five feet and I couldn't make it. I couldn't breathe.

"I kept talking to myself. I said, 'Mac, don't punk out on me...' I said, 'They ain't gonna read about me.'

"Then I told T, my assistant. I said, 'T, call the ambulance,' and she started to cry. And then the ambulance people came and were like, 'Goddamn, that's Bernie Mac! Bernie Mac is dying on us.'"

Mac admits the illness, brought on by exhaustion, was a living hell for him and he's determined not to work himself into the ground in 2005.

He adds, "It hit me like death."