Ryan Reynolds has paid a special tribute to his mom on her 80th birthday

Reciting the plot to 1982's blockbuster 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial', he hilariously captioned a series of snapshots of their fun times together on Instagram: "Tam Tam is 80!!! Wishing my mom the happiest birthday.

"I still remember the first time I saw her. I was sitting in the backyard one night, holding a flashlight and dozing off. Suddenly she just came waddling out of the shed. It scared the s*** out of me!

"Later I rode my bike, racing away from our dry desert home and into a deciduous rainforest which somehow coexists just a few blocks away.

"Eventually Mom was all like, 'f*** it' and we straight up, flew into the air while she whispered, 'Elliot' every few seconds in a low groan that was both off-putting and quite off-putting."

He continued: "Later she waddled back into her spacecraft and left earth forever, even though I saw her like four times today alone.

"Happy Birthday mom. You are the best mom.

"We love you. Your grandbabies love you. Most importantly, @Hugh Jackman loves you."

Tammy, as she is known affectionately, is grandmother to Ryan and his 37-year-old actress wife Blake Lively's children James, nine, Inez, eight, and Betty, five, and Olin, who was born in February 2023.

Ryan's wife Blake has a close bond with her mother-in-law and recently quipped that she is only with him to get close to Tammy.

The 'It Ends With Us' star told OK magazine: "[Female friendships] are everything to me. From my mom, to my children, my mother-in-law - she's the best. She made my husband take her to US daytime talk show 'The View'. And I said, 'Oh you're doing The View?' And he said, 'No, Mom really wants to go to 'The View'. I said, 'You're gonna sit in the audience of The View?'. And he's like, 'Yeah. Mom really wants to go.

"She's very controlling. No she's the best. I'm so lucky. This is the only reason I'm with him, is to be with her. But female friendships are important."