Morgan Freeman hospitalized after car wreck

(CNN) -- Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was in serious condition but in "good spirits" Monday at a Tennessee hospital after a car wreck near his home in northern Mississippi, his business partner said.

Sunday night's wreck -- in which Freeman flipped a car owned by his passenger, according to a witness -- left him with a broken left upper arm, other fractures and neck and shoulder injuries, Bill Luckett said.

"He's in good spirits, but he's in a lot of pain," said Luckett, who co-owns a restaurant and blues club with Freeman.

Freeman and a woman were extracted by paramedics after the 11:30 p.m. wreck and airlifted to the hospital, according to Angie Underwood, a Mississippi Highway Patrol spokeswoman.

The condition of the woman, Memphis resident Demaris Meyer -- whom Luckett described as a mutual friend of his and Freeman's -- wasn't released.

Freeman may have surgery as early as Monday evening and could need three to four months to recover, Luckett told reporters outside the Regional Medical Center in Memphis.

The wreck happened on a state highway about five miles outside Charleston, Mississippi, where Freeman has a home. A witness said Freeman was driving Meyer's car when it flipped. Watch witness describe wreck »

"I heard a noise outside that sounded like a car sliding," said Bill Rogers, who lives on the highway where the accident happened. "I turned around and looked out the window real quick, and I saw a car flipping bumper-to-bumper, head over heels."

Rogers, a former police officer and sheriff's deputy, said Freeman and Meyer were unconscious when the car came to rest on its wheels. But by the time he returned from calling an ambulance, both were talking, he said.

"He wanted to get out of the car and lay on the ground," Rogers said. "I told him no, he needed to stay put until the rescue people got there."

A spokeswoman for the Memphis hospital, Milla Borden, confirmed that Freeman was in serious condition there Monday.

The cause of the wreck is being investigated, the Highway Patrol said. But Rogers said it had rained earlier in the evening, and he saw no sign of alcohol or drug use at the scene.

"My understanding of it is she was going to give him a ride home and she did not know the way, so he was going to drive the vehicle," Rogers said.

Rogers said the car flew about 45 feet before it landed on its trunk, smashing open the compartment and scattering papers.

"The car was torn up so bad I couldn't tell what it was," he said.

According to The Associated Press, Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima. Meyer and Freeman were wearing seat belts, Williams said.

The crash site is about 90 miles south of Memphis and 35 miles southeast of Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Freeman and Luckett own the Madidi restaurant and the Ground Zero blues club.

Freeman and Meyer were at Luckett's home in Clarksdale before the crash happened, Luckett said.

Freeman won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in 2005 for his role in the gritty boxing film "Million Dollar Baby." He has been nominated for Oscars three other times, for the movies "Street Smart," "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Shawshank Redemption." Gallery: The career of Morgan Freeman »

He's currently appearing on movie screens in the action film "Wanted" and in the Batman film "The Dark Knight."

He was born in Memphis and grew up in the Mississippi Delta region, moving back to open the blues club and the restaurant in 2001. In a 2005 interview with CNN, he said returning to the area was "one of the smartest moves I've made in life."

"My aim in life, when I graduated from high school, was to get out of Mississippi," he said. "I started coming back in about 1979, because my parents moved back, which I couldn't understand. What in the world would make you come back here? It took me about 20 years to figure that out."

Freeman's nonprofit foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to schools in the historically poor region, and he established the club in part to preserve the Delta's musical heritage.

Rogers said Freeman "has been a fixture here for a very, very long time," though Sunday night was the first time he had met him.

"He's got the fame, he's got the fortune, yet he's got a level head and used that to help people," he said. "We're all kind of used to seeing him around the community here, so we're not surprised when we do see him."

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