Burt Reynolds is being treated in intensive care after contracting a severe case of the flu.
The Boogie Nights actor has been battling the virus, which has swept across America this year, for the last few days.
However he was hospitalised in Florida after the virus seemed to be getting much worse. A representative for the 76-year-old star confirmed to TMZ that he was moved to ICU early on Friday morning because doctors realised he was ‘severely dehydrated.’
Medical experts are optimistic that he will make a full recovery from his illness.
A spokesperson told E! News: ‘He is doing better. They are taking care of him and his moustache.’
The actor had a quintuple heart bypass in 2010, a year after he entered a West Palm Beach, Florida rehab clinic to help kick a prescription drug habit that stemmed from earlier back surgery.
At the time, his publicist denied Reynolds was forced to have emergency surgery, saying that he ‘has a great motor with brand new pipes.’
In 2011, the actor, who starred 40 years ago in Deliverance and films such as The Cannonball Run, faced having his Florida waterfront mansion repossessed after he reportedly fell £700,000 behind on his mortgage.
But the twice-married star, who was romantically linked over the years with country singer Tammy Wynette, actress Sally Field, singers Dinah Shore and Lorna Luft and tennis champion Chris Evert, insisted his financial travails were all a misunderstanding.
The once-hunky Smokey and the Bandit star recently appeared to have given up attempts to fight back time, allowing his hair and his famous moustache to go naturally grey.
Father to 24-year-old adopted son Quinton Reynolds, he has in the past denied longstanding rumours that he’d undergone a facelift, insisting he’d inherited his wrinkle-free skin from his father.
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