With our favorite celebrities, rumors are sadly inevitable. While many do their due diligence when it comes to fact-checking, the rumor mill can grab a bunch of false facts, and it can turn into a media circus. We’ve seen it before with fake pregnancy announcements, false claims, and one of the most out-there rumors to hit a bunch of celebrities: fake death announcements.
Ever since the beginning of the internet, so many celebrities have fallen victim to death hoaxes, where spoof outlets claim A-listers died suddenly. Oftentimes, they’re brushed off as fake news, but sometimes, the false reports get traction.
In 2023 alone, multiple stars have been at the center of death hoaxes. Both controversial influencer Lil Tay and Bachelorette star Josh Seiter’s accounts were hacked, with hackers announcing a fake death announcement from their social media, and nearly every outlet jumping on it. Both have had to make announcements dispelling the rumors, and in late Aug 2023, Ellen DeGeneres was even falsely reported as dead.
From those hacking incidents that occurred with Seiter and Tay to inappropriate “jokes” people make about claiming certain celebrities died, more celebrities have fallen victim to this horrific, mentally draining event.
See which celebrities have been the victims of viral death hoaxes below:
Lil Tay
In the summer of 2023, controversial teenage influencer Lil Tay was hacked by someone who claimed she and her brother died in a car wreck, but when Lil Tay got her account back, she told everyone it was false and that the hackers even got her legal name wrong.
Josh Seiter
Bachelorette alum Josh Seiter had the same thing occur as Lil Tay, where a hacker claimed he died suddenly. But once he got his account back, he cleared it all up.
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Noah Schnapp
Image Credit: Photo by Monica Schipper/WireImage. Despite the phrase “Noah Schnapp dead” and multiple accounts being created to tell it on Twitter and Facebook, Noah Schnapp is quite alive, per US Express.
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Steven Yeun
Image Credit: Photo by Kayla Oaddams/WireImage. One of the latest celebrities to have to deal with a death hoax is Steven Yeun, which happened after a satirical website falsely posted a page on Facebook called “R.I.P. Steven Yeun,” which subsequently led to the quote “Steven Yeun dead” trending, per The Sun.
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Ellen DeGeneres
Image Credit: Randy Holmes via Getty Images. Ellen DeGeneres has had her fair share of death hoaxes since 2020, and on Aug 30, 2023, many thought she died suddenly after false news spread on Twitter.
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Macaulay Culkin
Image Credit: Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images. Macaulay Culkin was at the center of rumors when it was incorrectly reported he died, and he poked fun at this by mocking the iconic film Weekend at Bernie’s in an Instagram post.
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Jeff Goldblum
Image Credit: Photo by River Callaway/Variety via Getty Images. Jeff Goldblum’s death hoax was so bad that even his own mother thought he died. Back in 2009, someone claimed he fell off a cliff in New Zealand, and it quickly gained traction. His mother saw, and called him crying, per People.
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Michael J. Fox
Image Credit: Photo by Steve Eichner/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images. An article was syndicated to Yahoo News that claimed Michael J. Fox suddenly passed away from Parkinson’s Disease-related complications back in 2018!
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Henry Cavill
Image Credit: Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images. Back in 2018, a false report claimed Henry Cavill died, and like other celebs, he poked fun with it by posting a photo of him alive and well on Instagram with the caption reading, “When you learn that you died 2 days ago…”
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Charlie Sheen
Image Credit: Photo by Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Images. Charlie Sheen wasn’t the one to shut down the death hoax, it was his ex-wife Denise Richards. Rumors started to swirl, and she took to Twitter, saying, “The rumor about Charlie Sheen is not true. He is alive and on his way over to see his daughters. Thank u for all your concern…”
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Jack Black
Image Credit: Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images. Back in the summer of 2016, Jack Black’s band Tenacious D’s Twitter was hacked, and claimed he died the night before. They quickly cleared up the rumors, saying, “WE had our Twitter account hacked. We can assure you that Jack is ALIVE and WELL and that this was a sick ‘prank,’” per Snopes.
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James Earl Jones
Image Credit: Photo by John Atashian/Getty Images. In 2015, James Earl Jones was the victim of a death hoax when a parody account claimed he passed away with a joke link. Many people just ran with the headline, but he quickly ended the rumors, per People.
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Zach Braff
Image Credit: Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images. Remember in 2009 when Zach Braff was reported dead by a fake CNN.com page, per the Wrap?
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Will Ferrell
Image Credit: Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images. Will Ferrell’s death hoax was definitely more, erm, creative than others, because back in 2006, a fake news page alleged he died in a paragliding accident in Calif, and Gawker debunked it quickly for fans.
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Lindsay Lohan
Image Credit: Photo by Nina Westervelt/WWD via Getty Images. Someone claimed on Lindsay Lohan’s Wikipedia page that she died in 2011, and the news went viral, and got shut down, on Twitter.
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Jackie Chan
Image Credit: Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images. Per the Wrap, fans vividly remember when Jackie Chan had to shut down the death hoax rumors in 2011 by saying on Facebook, “Jackie is alive and well. He did not suffer a heart attack and die, as was reported on many social networking sites and in online news reports.”
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Nicholas Cage
Image Credit: Photo by Michelle Quance/Variety via Getty Images. Nicholas Cage was the victim of a death hoax in July 2016 when multiple sources reported that “Nicolas Cage passed away because of a serious Motorcycle Accident” and even photoshopped pics of him at a motorcycle crash scene.
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Taylor Swift
Image Credit: Photo by Bryan Bedder/Variety via Getty Images. Sadly, Taylor Swift is no stranger to death hoaxes. In 2009 alone, she was reportedly killed in a car wreck, then by sleeping pills. And in 2016, the death hoaxes got so intense that even artists were making murals in her memory, but the artist quickly said it was in honor of her new persona for her album Reputation.
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Cher
Image Credit: Photo by Brian Feinzimer/Variety via Getty Images. Remember when the “R.I.P. Cher” Facebook page was created in September 2016, and everyone went insane? But yes, it was clearly a fake.
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Miley Cyrus
Image Credit: Photo by Katie Jones/WWD via Getty Images. Like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus has had so many death hoaxes surround her since 2008. Over the years, people have claimed she was killed in a hit-and-run accident, that people said she died secretly, and others claimed she passed from an accidental overdose. Obviously, all of them were lies.
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Gabourey Sidibe
Image Credit: Photo by Stewart Cook/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images. Per Bustle, Gabourey Sidibe quickly shut down those viral rumors in 2016 that she died from an asthma attack.
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Britney Spears
Image Credit: Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images. As a joke, two Dallas DJs claimed both Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake died in a car accident, but apparently Timberlake was convinced his then-girlfriend died. He told ABCNews, “The first thing I did was call Britney. Since the beginning, [when] people knew about our relationship, there’s always been things that have been said that were totally not true, but this just, like, took it to a whole ‘nother planet.”
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