Burt Reynolds hospitalized for flu

Actor Burt Reynolds is in intensive care in a Florida hospital, where he went for treatment of flu symptoms, one of his representatives said Friday.
Reynolds was dehydrated when he went to the hospital, and was eventually transferred to its intensive care unit, his representative Erik Kritzer said.
Kritzer declined to divulge what hospital the actor was in, saying, “He would like that (kept) private.”
“He is doing better at this time,” Kritzer said late Friday afternoon of the 76-year-old actor. “We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular room.”
Born in southern Georgia, Reynolds and his family moved to Michigan and eventually to southeastern Florida, according to his profile on the website of the Florida Artist Hall of Fame, in which he was inducted in 1993. At Palm Beach High School, he first made a name for himself as a football star and earned an athletic scholarship to Florida State University.
When injuries derailed his promising athletic career, Reynolds turned to acting. He scored small parts in the late 1950s, then broke through a few years later in the role of Quint on the TV series “Gunsmoke.”
His career took another leap with the 1972 release of “Deliverance,” in which he played an Atlanta businessman exploring the remote north Georgia wilderness with friends. “The Longest Yard” came out two years later, starring Reynolds as an ex-football player who lands in prison.