Morgan Freeman is alive, no matter what Facebook says (death hoaxes)

yahoo news ^ | 9/10/12 | Tim Kennealy

[raccoonradio]

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Breathe easy, Morgan Freeman fans - the internet has once again failed to kill off the "Shawshank Redemption" star, despite its best efforts.

Freeman was once again the victim of an online death hoax this week, after a Facebook page announcing the 75-year-old actor's demise amassed more than 842,000 "likes."

"At about 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, our beloved actor Morgan Freeman passed away due to a artery rupture," the page reads. "Morgan was born on June 1, 1937. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page."

That truly would be sad news, if there were a shred of truth to it. However, the actor's spokesman told TheWrap that Freeman is, in fact, alive and well.

Rumors of the actor's demise, meanwhile, seem immortal. In late 2010, the actor was the victim of another prank claiming that the actor had died in his home.

Freeman has also been the target of perhaps nastier scuttlebutt over the years. Media reports that the actor planned to wed his step-granddaughter E'Dena Hines became so ubiquitous earlier this year that he was forced to issue a public statement to the contrary

[raccoonradio]

It's on the internet. It must be true.

We hear such death hoaxes from time to time. What was the last one, Tom Hanks? Tom Cruise? Who knows.
>>the 75-year-old actor's demise amassed more than 842,000 "likes."

So...people are saying they like the fact that he supposedly died? :) Naah, probably "oh sorry to hear this"...

Freeman is probably a big lib but he has done pretty well in various roles. Didn't he play God in Bruce Almighty? Easy Reader on the old Electric Company show. And for blues fans, I believe he is co-owner of the Ground Zero nightclub in Clarksdale, MS (I ate lunch there after seeing the nearby Delta Blues museum)

This was actually an article from Monday but I must have missed it. I only saw it because a facebook friend of mine "liked" the Morgan Freeman RIP page and I was curious to see if it was true.

[catfish1957]

As mad as I am this morning, I probably should keep what I am thinking to myself.

[raccoonradio]

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Celebrity_Death_Hoaxes/

>>A death hoax involves falsely reporting the death of someone still living. This kind of hoax has been a favorite of pranksters for centuries. Early practitioners of it included Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Swift.

The most famous death hoax of all time was the “Paul is dead” rumor of 1968, in which the claim that Paul McCartney of the Beatles had died swept throughout America and Great Britain.

In recent years, hoaxes alleging that various celebrities have died have become a frequent fixture in the news. Much of the reason for the popularity of this hoax can be attributed to the internet, which has made such hoaxes easier to perpetrate. A would-be hoaxer simply has to produce an email or webpage that imitates the look of a credible news source. Concerned fans will then forward the fake news story to their friends, inadvertently giving the hoax greater visibility.

(Some death hoaxes):
Paris Hilton 2007
Will Ferrell 2006
Eminem 2000 (car crash)
Lou Reed 2001 (died of overdose. Oops! Wrong.)
Margaret Thatcher (”Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A fake news story (disguised as a page from the Guardian) reported the passing of the Iron Lady. As a tribute to her, Stephen Hawking was supposedly going to speak in her voice.”)

[raccoonradio]

[raccoonradio]

yeah we’re apologizing when our ambassadors get killed in the Middle East. The ambassador’s death is real.

[Beowulf9]

Morgan Fairchild is still alive!

[KarlInOhio]

On the other hand the reports of Mark Twain's death are no longer exaggerated.

[ConservativeStatement]

I can hear Howie Carr say “Taken!” in the next death pool.

[raccoonradio]

Yes...a couple false reports of Bob Hope’s death:

>>Bob Hope, twice (aided by his great longevity). In both cases a pre-written obituary of the entertainer was accidentally published on a news web site:
In 1998 his obituary appeared on the Associated Press web site, leading to the announcement of his death in the United States House of Representatives, broadcast live on C-SPAN.
In the 2003 CNN.com incident. Hope’s draft obituary, which had used the Queen Mother’s as a template, described him as ‘Queen Consort’ and the ‘UK’s favorite grandmother’. Hope died just three months later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premature_obituaries

Some others:
>>Whitney Houston, American singer, was falsely reported dead of a drug overdose on a radio report September 12, 2001.Houston died February 11, 2012.

>>Thomas Menino: as an April Fool’s Day prank in 1998, shock jocks Opie and Anthony claimed on WAAF-FM radio that the Boston mayor had died in a car accident. Several local media outlets picked up on the story and reported it as true, causing a media firestorm that eventually led to the pair being fired. However, fan support resulted in Opie & Anthony getting a job in New York

(THANK WU!)

>>Neil Young: was mistakenly reported dead on August 25, 2012 on NBCNews.com. A headline reported “Astronaut Neil Young, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82”. In fact, Neil Armstrong had died. NBC said they corrected the error after seven minutes. Some believe it was the result of confusing Armstrong with fellow astronaut John Young, who is still alive.

[raccoonradio]

Howie Carr list ping. The reports of Morgan Freeman’s death have been greatly exaggerated. A link above this post will take you to a Wikipedia page with other death hoaxes or false reports..

Folks, when you see something like this it’s a good idea to check other news sources. The “Morgan Freeman Is Dead RIP”
facebook page got a lot of “likes” from FB users who fell for it.

Oh, and then there’s Paul McCartney. See, you spin the record backwards and it say “Paul is dead, miss him,
miss him...” :)

[ScottinVA]

Morgan Freeman’s still alive, huh?

Oh.

[dfwgator]

You mean he didn’t die in a hang gliding accident in New Zealand?

[Buckeye McFrog]

The most famous death hoax of all time was the “Paul is dead” rumor of 1968

You're forgetting the "Marshal Tito is Dead" reports which came within a hair of triggering a Soviet invasion in the late 70's.

[dfwgator]

What about Mikey from Life Cereal dying from mixing pop rocks and soda.

[raccoonradio]

yes I remember that too

Also:
One was an actor. One shot ML King. Someone got them confused. “James Earl Jones: in 1998 the actor was mistakenly pronounced dead during a radio broadcast of a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game by play-by-play announcer Lanny Frattare; Frattare had confused him with James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King’s assassin, who had recently died” (False reports of death. For that matter neither are the same as James Ray, who died of a drug overdose in the 60s. He sang “I Got My Mind Set On You”, later a huge hit for George Harrison.)

More false death reports: Fats Domino was said to have drowned in Katrina (but one of the Cowsills actually did). Marcus Garvey had suffered a stroke, read his obit in the paper—then died, for real. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was reported dead in the Tucson incident; pres. press sec James Brady in the Reagan assassination attempt, both not true. Hockey coach Pat Burns was said to have died in Sep. of 2010 but did die for real 2 months later. And: “Frank Gorshin (The Riddler from Batman): in 1957, after driving to a screen test for 39 hours without a break to avoid having to fly, the actor fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. A Los Angeles newspaper reported him dead. Gorshin was unconscious for four days, and the role went to another actor.Gorshin died in May 2005.”