Dean Winters Dean Winters - known for acting roles on “30 Rock,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and other productions - has long been Mayhem in ads for Allstate insurance.

Dean Winters went into cardiac arrest for two minutes on the way to the hospital, but thankfully, paramedics could revive him. But he spent three weeks in intensive care recovering from the illness.

2010 Allstate first introduced Mayhem in 2010 and has since turned the character played by actor Dean Winters into a household name – joining the ranks of Geico's Cockney accented Gecko and Progressive's Flo.

2010 Winters was away from acting until 2010, when Tina Fey brought him back to 30 Rock. Also that year, Winters was introduced as "Mayhem", a recurring character in a television and radio advertising campaign for Allstate Insurance created by the advertising agency Leo Burnett Chicago.

Mayhem is the main protagonist, anti-hero and presumably immortal mascot/advertising character/second spokesperson for the insurance company Allstate. He is a man who encourages people to get Allstate.

He can also be seen as the Allstate spokesmodel character known as Mayhem. Winters also played Detective Brian Cassidy on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).

In a conversation with The A.V. Club, Dean explained why he had to bow out of Law & Order: SVU. "I was on the show for the first season, but then I had to leave because I had a contract with HBO, and there was a bit of a dispute."

A dozen years ago, actor Dean Winters had surgery resulting in several amputations and he now says “I haven't taken a step since 2009 without being in pain.” “I've got neuropathy on, you know, on a whole different level where I can't feel my hands and my feet,” he told Page Six.

The Mayhem character will be a deadpan actor who represents the incidents in life that could lead to accidents. In every ad, this character will state that because the customer stuck with “cut rate” insurance, they won't be covered and will end up paying more out of their own pockets.

With Allstate, you're protected from mayhem - like me. Mayhem's tagline.

With Allstate, you're protected from mayhem - like me. Mayhem's tagline.

Allstate launched on April 17, 1931, as the Great Depression intensified and Americans struggled with financial insecurity. The first policy insured a 1930 Studebaker at $41.60 for the year.