Filmmaker and Broadway playwright Aaron Sorkin was working extremely hard on his new project last fall. So much so that, when he found himself bumping into walls as he stumbled to the kitchen in the middle of the night, he just shrugged it off.

But the 61-year-old told the New York Times he went to the doctor the next day after he noticed he kept spilling the glass of orange juice he was carrying.

The doctor took one look at his blood pressure reading and told Sorkin, "You're supposed to be dead."

Sorkin had suffered a stroke, which left him slurring his speech and struggling to complete basic tasks like signing his own name.

"Those issues are now behind him, and the main lingering effect is that he still can’t really taste food," the Times reported.

But Sorkin hasn't forgotten the experience, calling it "a loud wake-up call."

“I thought I was one of those people who could eat whatever he wanted, smoke as much as he wanted, and it’s not going to affect me. Boy, was I wrong.”

In fact, he said, "There was a minute when I was concerned that I was never going to be able to write again.”

Aaron Sorkin reveals he had a stroke: I’m ‘supposed to be dead’ https://t.co/RUWdHwm5eO pic.twitter.com/9Pbnz38H66

— Page Six (@PageSix) March 22, 2023

After that life-changing event, Sorkin told the Times, he cleaned up his act: He quit smoking, changed his diet and started working out.

"I take a lot of medicine," he said. "You can hear the pills rattling around in me.”

Sorkin has been a successful writer for television ("The West Wing," "The Newsroom") and films, including "Moneyball" and "Steve Jobs."

He earned an Oscar for his screenplay of “The Social Network."

His first stage drama, "A Few Good Men," found success not only on Broadway, but also went on to do quite well on the big screen in 1992 starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon.

More recently, his modern adaptation of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" won the praise of critics and audiences.

His latest project is a rewrite of the script for the classic 1960s Lerner & Loewe musical, "Camelot."

"Camelot" is back on Broadway, now with a new book by Aaron Sorkin. He talked with me about his approach to revising the classic musical, and about serious challenges he faced along the way. https://t.co/65aNLBEtQE

— Michael Paulson (@MichaelPaulson) March 22, 2023

Initially, the Times reported, Sorkin was reluctant to "go public" with the news of his stroke.

But then he relented, saying, “If it’ll get one person to stop smoking, then it’ll be helpful.”

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.