Ashton Kutcher is not the first celebrity name to come to mind when thinking about selflessness, but he should be up there on that list.
The That '70s Show star is known for his good looks and humor, but did you know he has a twin brother? Ashton is so close with his twin, Michael, that he'd be willing to die for him - and he almost did.
The 40-year-old actor may seem like he's living a perfect life with his wife, Mila Kunis, and two children, but he's actually no stranger to adversity.
When he was 23 years old, he was dating a student named Ashley Ellerin who was murdered on one of their date nights. She was stabbed dozens of times by Michael Gargiulo, a serial killer known as Chiller Killer. Ashton had to testify in court, which turned out to be a crucial piece of evidence for the conviction of the killer.
A decade before that tragic incident, Ashton's brother, who was born with cerebral palsy, was told he had only a few hours to live after he suffered from a cardiac arrest at the age of 13.
Doctors told the worried family that they had two choices: They could either say goodbye to their young boy or pump his heart, which would only extend his life for up to a day.
Both options sounded grim. Ashton knew there was only one thing he could do to save his best friend's life...
Upon hearing that heartbreaking news, 13-year-old Ashton couldn't imagine a world without his brother in it.
"I shared everything I had in this world and I didn't know that there was another way because I always had my brother with me," he said in an award acceptance speech when talking about his twin.
His brother needed a heart, and he knew he had one that would be a perfect match, so he had to make a decision: His life or his beloved brother's?
"I'm standing on the balcony, thinking about jumping off, and my dad comes out and says, 'What are you thinking about?'" recalled Ashton, according to Hollywood. "I tell him. He comes over and says, 'You can't do that.'"
Not long after, doctors rushed to tell the Kutcher family some amazing news: "'We have to prepare the OR. A woman died in Florida in a car accident, and there's a heart on the way,'" Ashton recalled.
The heart transplant surgery was successful, but the family was told that he would probably have seven years left to live. Now more than two decades later, Michael still lives in their home state of Iowa.
When accepting the Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award in 2017, the actor paid an emotional tribute to his brother. He spoke about their bond and all the things he learned growing up with a twin that wasn't exactly like him.
"When I got older, I spent years and years feeling bad about it - our inequalities. He also taught me that he had gifts that I didn't have. Extraordinary gifts that I didn't have, and that every time I felt sorry for him in life, I made him less. He taught me that and he gave that to me," he said.
Ashton continues to make donations to the hospital that saved his brother's life.
