Michael Rudder is a video game voice actor who you may or may not heard of. His list of appearances is Splinter Cell, Far Cry Instincts, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. He was never the main voice in any of the games. After reading his traumatic, yet amazing story I doubt you'll ever forget him.

I was in absolute disbelief while reading the CBC article about Michael Rudder. Rudder is primarily known for his stage acting in Canada, as well as his list of voice acting stints.

Rudder was a victim of one of the terrorist attacks that occurred in Mumbai, India. In a Mumbai hotel, while dining with his friends is where the attack took place. Instead of explaining the story myself, here's Rudder's own words.

"We heard gunshots and, the idiot that I am…I went towards them thinking, what's that? The staff shushed me back and said, 'It's just gangsters, sir, it's not a problem, just go back to your table.' And there was my sorta fatal error, really, because I did go back to my table and I said, 'Apparently it's just some kinda gangster activity and it's no big deal.' Five minutes later, we were just ripped to shreds by bullets."

Rudder then went on to talk about his survival of the attack…

"I found myself in a Bruce Willis Die Hard moment…where my arm — had a lovely white shirt on — and it just exploded into red. And, while I was taking that in, I got a bullet in my leg. So I quickly got myself on the floor to get a bullet in the butt as I was going down — and then another bullet, still another bullet grazed my head. So I just laid there in utter shock."

Playing dead worked until the terrorists started to use smoke grenades, then Rudder had to make a move…

"If I would've sat there and said, 'Oh, I don't feel well, I don't think I'll get up from the floor and watch the smoke come in and suffocate me,' I think I would've been kind of an idiot…To tell you the truth, I followed the bloodstains…I just crawled out and got down to the service exit off the kitchen, walked out into the street, which was cordoned off, and one of those wonderful yellow-and-black cabs came roaring out of nowhere, bundled me into it. They zoomed us over here to the Bombay Hospital."

Rudder then goes on to talk about comparing his experience with movies to the actual event. If you want to read the rest of the story, click the link above. I'm still in shock just reading his story. Coming so close to Christmas, it serves as a reminder of how lucky we truly are to have what we have. Luckily Rudder should be able to make a trip back to Canada in time for Christmas, to be with his family.