David Hasselhoff found fame on Knight Rider and Baywatch

Press reports claimed the actor, 54, was intoxicated and could not board the flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles.

Hasselhoff's publicist Judy Katz said that "was totally untrue" and that the actor felt unwell after taking some medication for a recent arm injury.

She said it was "his choice" not to get on the plane and he got a later flight.

"Due to a new medication prescribed on Tuesday by his doctor in London for an infection to his injured hand, Mr Hasselhoff became ill at Heathrow airport and requested to be put on a later flight," Ms Katz said in a statement.

She said Hasselhoff had been taking the antibiotics following a shaving accident - the actor is said to have bumped into a chandelier at a London hotel while shaving last month and shards of glass from the light fell and cut his arm.

Hasselhoff has also appeared in the West End version of Chicago

"He left on a 12 noon British Airways flight," she added.

Ms Katz, who said she had been with Hasselhoff at the airport, denied claims he had been drinking beer and shots of whisky while waiting to board the early morning flight.

Earlier this month, the All England Club denied press reports that a "drunken" Hasselhoff had to be removed from the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Security guards "knew nothing" of the claims, said a spokeswoman, adding the former Baywatch star "wasn't ejected".

He tried to enter the press centre while searching for Court 13 but was not correctly accredited, she added.

The actor recently cancelled his debut Christmas pantomime role - playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the New Wimbledon Theatre, in south-west London.

It clashed with a reality TV series in which he is due to judge aspiring performers alongside former Mirror editor Piers Morgan and singer Brandy.