71-Year-Old Morgan Freeman Listed as Critical

According to hospital officials in Memphis Tennessee, actor Morgan Freeman, recently featured in The Dark Knight, was listed as being in critical condition. According to Reuters, 71-year-old Freeman was airlifted to a Regional Medical Center in Tennessee from the adjacent state where the crash site was located, in Mississippi. Apparently, Freeman's car ran off the edge of the road, flipping the car several times. TMZ.com has later identified that other female passenger as Demaris Meyer.

At about 11:30 p.m. CST, Freeman was driving Meyer's 1997 Nissan Maxima eastbound on Highway 32 when Mississippi State patrollers arrived at the scene. Both passengers were reportedly wearing their seatbelts before the incident. The Press Association got eyewitness testimony from Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, who said he arrived at the accident scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened and saw that, "They had to use the Jaws of Life (hydraulic cutters) to extract him from the vehicle," he said. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point." Freeman at one point was joking "no freebies no freebies" towards the spectacle he caused as many of the public stopped to get a glimpse of the actor.

Meyer's condition is still unknown at this time. Furthermore, whether Freeman had alcohol in his system is also unknown. In addition, the relationship between the TMZ.com identified woman and Freeman is unclear.

Freeman has just recently come off a wave of success as The Dark Knight opening continues to be well received, as well as his feature in the June release of Wanted.