Richard Dreyfuss misses ‘Jaws’ event due to hospitalisation amid health issues
Hollywood icon Richard Dreyfuss was hospitalised over the weekend with an acute infection, which forced him to miss an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jaws.
In a video posted to Instagram by Shark Con, the event in Florida that the actor was supposed to attend, the 77-year-old actor spoke from his hospital bed as he explained he had been diagnosed with viral bronchitis and was so ill he would be unable to travel.
Dreyfuss said: “I am terribly sorry that I am unable to be there because I had been looking forward to it, but I don’t want to make anyone else sick, and I don’t want to get sicker myself.”
However, he also noted that he was in “a lot of pain and that [his health] needs to come first.” The actor looked seriously unwell in the video, with hospital machines heard beeping behind him and his wife having to prompt him after he forgot the name of his infection.
Dreyfuss had been due to attend the Shark Con event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the classic ocean movie, having already participated in several other events to mark the occasion over the past year.
However, the actor has also come under fire for public comments he has made at previous Jaws screenings, including one in May last year where he took fire at the transgender community, prompting the theatre that hosted the event to apologise for his remarks.
Despite celebrating the iconic Hollywood film, Dreyfuss said previously that he found the experience of working on Jaws “hellish” due to the strenuous stunts and relentless shooting schedule enforced by its director, Steven Spielberg.
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