Comedian Jerry Lewis was held by police at a US airport after a gun was found in his baggage.

The 82-year-old was boarding a plane at Las Vegas' airport at the time of the incident on Friday.

The unloaded firearm was discovered when the legendary comic passed through McCarran International's security checkpoint.

The star of the original 'The Nutty Professor' didn't know the weapon — a prop that didn’t work — was in his bag, his manager, Claudia Marghilano, claimed.

But police have refuted her claim that the gun was a hollowed-out prop.

A prop "wouldn't be a weapon, and we couldn't cite him for carrying a weapon," Bill Cassell of the Los Vegas police told AP.

After the .22-calibre gun was seized, the 'King of Comedy' star was booked for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Officer Ramon Denby.

The gun was registered to Lewis and to get it back will need to appear in court.

Lewis, who in the 1950s was half of a comedy duo with Dean Martin, had been headed to Mount Pleasant in Michigan to appear in a one-man show at the time of the incident.

The comedian has in the past overcome serious illness like meningitis and prostate cancer.