HONOLULU (Reuters) – Singer and actor Jim Nabors, star of the 1960s TV series "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," has been admitted to a Honolulu hospital with a throat infection, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The 81-year-old Nabors was admitted to Queens Medical Center in Honolulu on Sunday after suffering swelling of his throat, said Stan Cadwallader, the actor's business partner and representative.
Nabors, whose immune system has been compromised since he underwent a liver transplant 17 years ago due to hepatitis C, is responding well to antibiotics, Cadwallader said.
"Other than this whole setback, he's in pretty good health," he said, adding that Nabors could be released from the hospital on Thursday.
Nabors had been scheduled to sing the U.S. national anthem on Tuesday at a sacred Japanese tea ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, event representative Lisa Ontai said.
The entertainer was forced to cancel the appearance because of his illness, Ontai said.
Nabors is best known for playing Gomer Pyle in 1960s TV comedy series "The Andy Griffith Show" and on its spinoff, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," where he continued his role as the bumbling, naive Marine.
Nabors lives in Honolulu, and every year the car racing enthusiast performs the song "Back Home in Indiana" at the start of the Indianapolis 500 race.
(Reporting by Suzanne Gordon and Steve Gorman, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Cynthia Johnston)
