SICK NICK

Nick_stry_rot

An ailing and disheveled NICK NOLTE looked “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” after a recent health crisis.

Sporting long gray hair, the 73-year-old actor needed a nurse’s aid outside a doctor’s office in Beverly Hills.

“He actually got sick last week. It was the flu or a cold,” Nolte’s ex-wife Rebecca Linger exclusively told The  ENQUIRER. “He was dehydrated, needed to get fluids, and rest. He probably needed antibiotics.”

Even though Rebecca divorced Nick in 1994, she’s the one taking care of him after a source told The ENQUIRER his relationship with long-time girlfriend Clytie Lane, 46, has crumbled.

“Even though I don’t want to be married to Nick, I still love him and want to take care of him,” said Linger, who has a son Brawley, 28, with the “48 Hrs.” star.  Rebecca said a bout of pneumonia a couple years ago left the family worried it had recurred.

“My son said he’s doing better,” she said, adding that Nolte also suffers from his days as a college footballer.

“Like all old athletes, your hips and knees fall apart, but those can be fixed,” she said.

A notorious boozer in his heyday, Nolte checked into rehab after a DUI arrest in 2002. Tests later showed that he was under the influence of the “date rape” drug, GHB. He now lives in Malibu with Lane, a British actress, and their 6-year-old daughter Sophie.

While Lane “makes his life stressful,” said the source, “he does love his daughter. She’s a blessing.”