Photos: Celebrity death hoaxes
Bill Cosby is alive and well. The comedian was just the latest celebrity to undergo the Google Age ritual of death hoaxes. The 2012 hoax was the fifth time it’s happened to him. Here are more debunked death rumors: (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
Despite rumors that swept the Internet, “Breakfast Club” star Judd Nelson was alive and well, his agent even rushing to Nelson’s home to take a photo of the actor with the newspaper. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
According to a false report that spread across Twitter (with a little help from Kim Kardashian) in January 2012, Cher was found dead in her home. A friend of the singer confirmed she is indeed alive. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
According to a false news report, Jon Bon Jovi was found dead in New Jersey during a 2011 world tour. Bon Jovi confirmed that he was still kicking via Twitter, where he posted a photo of himself holding a sign with the date and a message: “Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey.” (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
Despite Internet rumors in 2010, Lindsay Lohan is alive. According to a false tweet, the actress died of an overdose and the rumor was confirmed via Twitter by a fake Kim Kardashian. Lohan’s then-upcoming jail time and ongoing Twitter war with Joan Rivers made her an easy target for rampant Internet rumors. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)
The teen sensation has been the subject of numerous false reports of his death. Being shot in a New York nightclub and overdosing on drugs are two that seemed to spread rapidly. There was even a false article, supposedly published by Fox News online, that the star was dead. Fox denied ever creating the story, and the hoax website has since been taken down. (Caroline McCredie / Getty Images)
According to a false Wikipedia update, the actor fell more than 50 feet while filming on Hahnenkamm mountain in Austria. Despite the fact that the false entry was immediately taken down, the rumor continued to run rampant on the Internet. (Thibault Camus / Associated Press)
According to reports online, Will Smith was driving when he lost control and flipped the car. That wasn’t true. But, the story could have gotten its start with a wire story about Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith that said “he will play” after being in a car accident. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
A month or so after he interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV VMAs, the rapper was reported dead. The fake news report had West in a car accident in Los Angeles. West’s girlfriend at the time, Amber Rose, tweeted, “This ‘RIP Kanye West’ topic is not funny and it’s NOT TRUE!” (Zacharie Scheurer / Associated Press)
Paul is dead! One of the odder, more sensational aspects of Beatles lore was this late ‘60s rumor that McCartney had died in 1966 and had been replaced by an imposter. The rumor is widely believed to have originated with an article published in the Drake University student newspaper. (Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP/Getty Images)
Hilton was doing jail time in 2007 when two death rumors started circulating. The first, disguised as a CNN report, had the heiress stabbed seven times by an inmate, while the second claimed she had committed suicide. Hilton served most of her time away from other prisoners. (Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA)
Knoxville reportedly plummeted to his death during a “Jackass” shoot for MTV in 2002. His parachute reportedly failed to open as he jumped from a bi-plane, all while eating a giant jar of baked beans. Didn’t happen, but we can’t imagine him going out any other way. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
During the furor over the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, in sneaks the rumor of actor Jeff Goldblum falling to his death in New Zealand. People like blogger Perez Hilton and actor Kevin Spacey denied the rumor, and Goldblum himself went on Stephen Colbert’s show to refute the claim. (Christina House / For the Times)
The actor wasn’t even in New Zealand when reports surfaced in November 2006 that claimed he fell to his death there. A fake news site said Hanks died after falling 60 feet from the Kauri Cliffs, but the actor was actually in California, filming “Charlie Wilson’s War.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Yet another high-profile celebrity supposedly met his end in New Zealand in October 2008 off the same cliffs Tom Hanks reportedly tumbled down. Quashing the Internet rumors, a spokesman for Cruise said in a statement, “This is completely not true. Tom is not in New Zealand nor has he been there recently.” (Barry Brecheisen / Invision / Associated Press)
Humor is precious, and we were all allegedly robbed of that when comedian Will Ferrell was falsely reported dead in March 2006. A press release through i-Newswire said that he had been killed in a paragliding accident. The release was written anonymously, and yet it still went out wide. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The “Scrubs” star took matters into his own hands when a fake CNN story alleged that he had committed suicide. Braff made a personal video to let his fans know he was OK and that he would never kill himself using pills -- he would opt for pots and pans instead. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Sandler was the victim of an Internet death rumor in December 2010 when a false report claimed he hit a tree at high speed while skiing in Switzerland. His rep said, “It’s completely not true and such irresponsible journalism.” (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
