Sinbad Is Alive – Despite Reports That He'd Died

If Sinbad was looking for new comic material, he may have found it after being killed off by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Fueled by a posting on the site last Saturday that he was no longer among the living, the robust 50-year-old actor-comedian got a call from his daughter, bringing the report to his attention, Sinbad tells the Associated Press.

This was followed by grieving phone calls, text messages and e-mails – hundreds of them, he says.

Once the news quieted down it only started up again, this time after someone updated the Wikipedia Sinbad entry to say he had passed away from a heart attack.

Still not true. “Saturday I rose from the dead and then died again,” the Los Angeles-based entertainer tells the AP.

Laughing off the early report of his demise, he adds, “It’s gonna be more commonplace as the Internet opens up more and more. It’s not that strange.”

Sinbad is currently on the road with his standup act. Wikipedia’s entries are made by any member of the public.

“Somebody vandalized the page,” Wikipedia spokeswoman Sandra Ordonez told E! on Friday. “Whoever did this was obviously a prankster. I don’t think they did this because they thought he [was dead].”

A quick check of Wikipedia’s Sinbad site on Friday morning revealed the following message, which reads, in part: “This page has been temporarily protected from editing to deal with vandalism.”