Rep: Jean Reno Had Heartburn, Not Heart Attack

Actor hospitalized for gastroenteritis, laughs away rumors that he's on deathbed after suffering coronary

By Josh Grossberg Aug 21, 2008 7:02 PMTags
Jean RenoDimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images

Jean Reno is alive and well, merci beaucoup.

Reports that the French film star, known for tough-guy roles in The Professional, Mission: Impossible and Ronin, was hospitalized in intensive care after suffering a heart attack are just plain wrong, his publicist tells E! News.

In fact, he's just laughing them off.

The 60-year-old thesp merely had a case of heartburn and thought that rumors of his dire condition were "pretty funny," says rep Christina Papadopoolos.

"He is vacationing in the Caribbean and went to a local hospital as a precaution for some discomfort he was feeling due to heartburn and gastroenteritis," she said in a statement. "It was definitely not a heart attack. He is fine and healthy and enjoying the rest of his vacation traveling in the Caribbean."

According to French news agency LCI, Reno and his model-actress wife, Zofia Borucka, were said to be staying with French singer Johnny Hallyday at his posh pad on the island of St. Bart's.

After Reno checked himself into a local medical center Wednesday, word spread that he had been stricken by a massive coronary and that he had been airlifted to the ICU at a hospital on Martinique.

Papadopoolos said the story was bunk and Reno is "just fine." The actor was released from Martinique's Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Fort-de-France earlier today and advised to rest.

Reno most recently costarred with Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code and lent his voice to Le Frog in DreamWorks' hit 'toon Flushed Away. Next up, he will reprise his role as Ponton in The Pink Panther Deux opposite Steve Martin, unspooling early next year.