Veteran American stand-up George Carlin has checked himself into rehab to treat a drink and drug problem.

In a statement released by his publicist, the 67-year-old comic said: "I'm going into rehab because I use too much wine and Vicodin [an addictive painkiller].”

“No one told me I needed this; I recognised the problem and took the step myself."

Carlin entered an unnamed rehab unit on Monday, though it is not known how long the treatment will take.

His statement added: "I know it isn't easy, but I'm highly motivated, and will do whatever's needed.

“My levels of use are nowhere near the worst you hear about these days. I could easily have continued functioning at a good level for a while, but my use would have progressed.I would have been in deeper trouble and I didn't want to tolerate that."

Carlin made his name in the Seventies with passionate routines about drugs and, most famously, the seven filthiest words. And he enjoyed a career revival on the back of 1989’s Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, in which he played mentor Rufus.

He has previously boasted about his cocaine abuse, but successfully battled that addiction in the Eighties.