OSCAR-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr has been spending the last four years battling to regain his health - after a bad experience in a South African restaurant left him for dead.

The star of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, 67, had a meal at a restaurant while visiting South Africa in the late 1990s - and it nearly cost him his life.

He says, "I ate some game meat in South Africa and got parasites. It took years for my doctor in Toronto to figure out what was wrong with me. By the time I was diagnosed, my blood count was 19. When you get as low as 15, that's when you check out. I guess it just wasn't my time."

Before diagnosis, Gossett Jr says he experienced rapid and drastic weight loss and ended up becoming anaemic.

He explains, "I thought I was just getting old, to be honest with you."

Gossett Jr, who also had to deal with the rumour mill when his weight plummeted, adds, "I'm a recovering cocaine addict. But I did that years ago, right after I won the Oscar, so naturally, whenever you lose weight or aren't healthy, people begin to talk. Like if Robert Downey Jr gets a cold, I'm sure people will want to make it something else."

04/06/2003 01:56