JACKSON, Miss. — Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., today after being injured in a car accident at Mississippi.

A spokeswoman for Regional Medical Center, Kathy Stringer, said Mr. Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene at rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

A Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman, Sgt. Ben Williams, confirmed Mr. Freeman was in a wreck shortly before midnight yesterday, but said he was still gathering information and had few details today.

The editor of Sun Sentinel at Charleston, Clay McFerrin, said he arrived at the accident scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened about 4 miles west of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.

Mr. McFerrin said it appeared that Mr. Freeman’s car was airborne went it left the highway and landed in a ditch.

“They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle,” McFerrin said. “He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”

Mr. McFerrin said bystanders converged on the scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor.

When one person tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Mr. Freeman joked, “no freebies, no freebies,” Mr. McFerrin said.

Mr. Freeman won an Oscar for his role in “Million Dollar Baby.” His screen credits also include “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”

The hospital where Mr. Freeman is being treated is commonly known as The Med, and is an acute-care teaching facility that serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.