Elsa Pataky saved Chris Hemsworth's life when he suffered severe altitude sickness in the Himalayas

He said: "We went on this three-day hike through the mountains.

"We were a few thousand metres above sea level and my body just wasn't acclimatising and adjusting to the change.

"I started becoming really short of breath, I had fluid in my lungs and I was trying to ignore it. I was going to sleep and my wife listened to me breathe, she could hear it in my chest, and said, 'I think something is wrong.' I was like, 'I am fine, I am fine, just go to sleep.' "

Unbeknown to the Hollywood star, he was just a few hours from a "drastically bad" situation, but Elsa - who he has five-year-old daughter India, and three-year-old twin sons Sasha and Tristan with - wouldn't take no for an answer and went to get help, saving his life.

Speaking to news.co.au, he added: "She got up and told the guard we were with and he came in and looked at me and said, 'Oh God. We have got to get you off the mountain.'

"So they strapped me up to oxygen and injected something in me and drove me down the mountain and let my body sort of acclimatise and adjust.

"Apparently, if I was up there for another few hours, it could have gone drastically bad.

"I am lucky my wife was there to slap some sense into me. She was the hero. I was in distress, I needed to be saved."

Despite starring in several movies such as 'The Avengers' and 'Star Trek', Chris - who married Elsa in 2010 - recently admitted starting a family has been his "biggest success".

He said: "For me, success is about the family and friends you keep; the people around you that you share your life with.

"I feel very successful in the relationships that I've been able to form in my life. I'm very lucky in that sense. I have friends and family who are very honest with me and tell me how it is. But they are also very compassionate and kind and supportive.

"My biggest success would be having children and having a family of my own now. It's a lot of work, with kids, but it's the greatest thing in the world."