'Crocodile Dundee' Star Paul Hogan Says Health Crisis Left Him 'Feeble'
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Actor Paul Hogan, who played the knife-wielding but kindhearted bushman Crocodile Dundee in three film comedies, is in a bad way. (Watch the video below.)
The Australian actor, now 83 years old, said Monday in an interview with the TV program “A Current Affair” that heart and kidney issues have left him “feeble.”
“I’m not in the place I’m meant to be but I’m not allowed to complain about anything,” he said, per 7News in Australia.
Paul Hogan in 1986's "Crocodile Dundee." (Photo: Archive Photos via Getty Images)
Hogan rocketed to fame in 1986 as the eccentric Mick Dundee, who left the Outback for New York City in a low-budget, fish-out-of-water movie that grossed more than $328 million worldwide.
But the actor, who finalized his divorce from co-star Linda Kozlowski in 2014, has fallen on difficult times in his health.
“[I’ve] been better. I had a problem on that aorta in the kidney and the treatment fixed it, but it shrunk me,” Hogan told reporter Tracy Grimshaw this week. “I’ve lost all my body fat.”
Hogan has been battling retroperitoneal fibrosis, leading to a growth that surrounded the abdominal aorta and pressed on his kidney, “A Current Affair” reported. The rare and progressive disease causes “tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder (ureters) and other abdominal organs or vessels [to] become blocked by a fibrous mass and inflammation in the back of the abdomen,” according to the National Institutes of Health.
He said treatment was successful but the side effects have been profound. “The cure was worse than the disease,” he said.
“The muscles all shrank. ... It left me feeble,” Hogan said.
#EXCLUSIVE: Paul Hogan opens up about health struggles.
The problem Hoges referred to is a condition called retro peritoneal fibrosis, a benign growth that in his case had wrapped around the abdominal aorta which pressed on his kidney.
READ MORE: https://t.co/D9hGfBUF2V#9ACApic.twitter.com/9jG3is9R2m— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) November 8, 2022
Hogan, who has a pacemaker, said he’s now “held together with string” and needs his 24-year-old son to open jars for him, reported 7News.
The actor has been living in the U.S. but said he is hoping to return permanently to Australia.
“I’ve had such a gifted life. I’ve had so many wonderful things happen to me without deserving them so I shouldn’t complain but, yeah, ideally I’d rather be back in Sydney because I miss the rest of my family there,” he said.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
