Oscar-winning "Million Dollar Baby" actor Morgan Freeman broke his arm and his elbow in a Mississippi car accident but "was in good spirits" in a Tennessee hospital Monday, his publicist said.
"He is having a little bit of surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to help correct the damage," spokeswoman Donna Lee, the veteran actor's sister-in-law, said in a statement. "He says he'll be OK and is looking forward to a full recovery. He and we thank everyone who has sent them for the good wishes and prayers."
The 71-year-old costar of the current box-office hit "The Dark Knight" crashed on a rural road late Sunday and was taken to the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center in Memphis. The Associated Press said the car Freeman was driving left the road and flipped several times. His hospital condition was initially listed as serious, the wire service said.
"They had to use the Jaws of Life to extract him from the vehicle," Clay McFerrin, editor of the Sun-Sentinel in Charleston, Miss., told the AP. McFerrin arrived at the scene of the accident soon after it happened. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."