A crazed homeless man spit on a pregnant woman in the subway yesterday - then allegedly stabbed a man who valiantly intervened to protect her. The victim, Clarence Carter Cochran, 44, a real estate agent and actor, was waiting in the 23rd Street/Sixth Avenue subway station at 1 p.m. when a friend stepped off the F train. As they began to talk, ex-con Herron Wilson, 64, who was screaming wildly, lunged at the woman and spit on her. "I'm like, 'Did you really just spit? You spit on a pregnant lady!' " the well-muscled Cochran told The Post as was recovering from a from a knife wound just inches from his heart at St. Vincent's Hospital. "I told him, 'Get out of here. Get out of my sight.' " The two began to tussle and Wilson - who served 11 years in prison for manslaughter and was released in 1995 - whipped out a steak knife, plunging it into Cochran's chest, sources said. "I didn't even know I got stabbed," Cochran said from his hospital bed, surrounded by a group of friends. "Then all of a sudden, I felt this warm, sticky stuff coming down my left side." Wilson took off and Cochran gave chase, despite his wounds. "I was like, 'Get that guy! That guy just stabbed me!' " he said. Witness Tony Hayes said the victim "was bleeding like crazy" as he chased his attacker out of the station. When Wilson emerged from the station, a crowd ran after him. He was charged last night with assault and criminal possession of a weapon. "People chased him," said witness David Thomas. "They knocked him to the ground and held him until police came." Moments later, a wounded Cochran appeared on the street, where he collapsed. He was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The Stamford, Conn., resident had a lead role in the 1993 independent film "Wonderguy." Friends and neighbors were not surprised by his valiant act. "Carter is the type of person that would walk the little old lady across the street," said his former Upper West Side neighbor Max St. James, 53. "I'm sure that Carter in his own way would have loved to have been Errol Flynn as Robin Hood. It's not a phony thing." Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick and Philip Messing

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