DIRECTOR Kevin Smith has revealed that he almost died today after suffering "a massive heart attack".

Just hours earlier Smith was onstage in Oxnard, California, performing with Ralph Garman in their Hollywood Babble On show.

But, as the director revealed on Twitter, he suffered "a massive heart attack" before the pair's second show of the night.

With his trademark humour, the Mallrats director tweeted a selfie from his hospital bed complete with tubes and a shocked expression.

Smith said the doctor who saved him told him if he had not cancelled his second show to go to the hospital, he would have died.

The filmmaker, actor, comic book writer and author gained a huge cult following in the mid-90s with his low-budget film Clerks.

Smith wrote, directed and starred as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob.

His subsequent films Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jersey Girl and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back all feature in his home state of New Jersey.

He married actress and broadcaster Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, 46, in 1999 and the pair have a 17-year-old daughter named Harley Quinn.

In 2015, Smith revealed he lost 60 kilos by cutting out sugar. He said he was determined to lose weight after he was asked to leave a flight from Oakland to Burbank due to fears he could not fit into his seat and was a "safety risk".