Tim Curry "had no idea" he was experiencing a near-fatal stroke.

The actor has opened up about undergoing the medical emergency in his new memoir, Vagabond, admitting he had "no idea" at the time that anything was amiss.

"I did not fade to black. I did not even feel out of sorts, or like something was very wrong. In fact, I had no idea that anything was off at all," Tim, 79, recalled.

The stroke occurred in 2012, while the Clue star was having a massage - and he has credited the masseur with saving his life, after calling for an ambulance despite Tim's insistence nothing was wrong.

"I probably owe my life to the fact that he ignored me, went with his instinct, and called an ambulance," the Annie actor wrote. "Even as they were loading me in, I still thought my masseur had overreacted, and that we were going through a ridiculous and unnecessary exercise."

After surgery to remove two clots from his brain, Tim, who has been a wheelchair user and unable to walk since recovering from the stroke, recalled his amazement that he had survived the incident.

"If there was anything impressed upon me in the aftermath, it was just how remarkable it was that I was still alive," he explained. "I don't know whether I was able to respond aloud at that stage; all I can truly remember thinking was 'But I didn't feel... anything'."