11 Celebrities Who 'Survived' Death Hoaxes

Find out what these stars had to say about their death hoaxes…

After Blue’s Clues host Steve Burns wrapped his run on the show, he took a step back from the spotlight. In the years that followed, while Steve was coping with mental health issues, he was the subject of multiple rumors that he had died of a drug overdose or by suicide. Looking back, Steve says it was “not what you want to hear when you’re severely clinically depressed.”

“When a gazillion people you’ve never met tell you that you’re dead…It’s bad when you’re severely clinically depressed,” he said on Rainn Wilson’s Soul Boom podcast. “And there was nothing I could do about this rumor. I mean, Nickelodeon didn’t like it either.”

He continued, “So I would go on The Rosie O’Donnell Show and be like, ‘Hi. I’m still alive.’ I was on one talk show where I danced with Busta Rhymes, and people still thought I was [dead] like, what else do you have to do?”

After missing a Modern Family reunion, rumors swirled that Ty Burrell didn’t attend because he had died. During the meet up, the entire cast posed for a photo around a framed photo of Ty and then posted a follow-up video saying “We miss you, Ty!” -- leading fans to believe he had died. Ty was able to clear things up and found the whole thing comical, later joking about it on his co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast.

“We had that one big reunion that I couldn’t make it to,” Ty recalled on the Dinner’s On Me podcast. “Remember how I died? Do you remember when I died? Everybody in the cast was telling me that, you know, apparently I passed.”

In 2022, rumors swirled on social media that Jimmy Fallon had died and it started to trend on X (formerly Twitter). Jimmy decided to go straight to the source to get things clarified, sending a public message to CEO Elon Musk but unfortunately he wasn’t much help.

“Elon, can you fix this? #RIPJimmyFallon,” Jimmy posted -- to which Elon replied, “Fix what?”

Back in 2014, Macaulay Culkin was the victim of a death hoax -- but he thought the whole thing was hilarious. Instead of just clearing things up, Macaulay decided to respond by recreating a scene from Weekend at Bernies, a film which follows two insurance agents who find out their boss is dead and then carry his body around town like a puppet to convince people he’s alive.

“Weekend at bernies with @anchovywarhol #greenroom,” he captioned a photo where a friend could be seen jokingly dragging him around, later adding, “We're on tour you silly people.”

Over a decade ago, Jeff Goldblum was the subject of rumors about his passing with a spoof website reporting that he had fallen off of a cliff in New Zealand and died. Even Jeff’s family and friends believed the news, leading to some very frantic phone calls. Shortly after, Jeff cleared things up by jokingly delivering a tribute to himself on The Colbert Report.

“Yes, someone had put online that I had fallen off a cliff in New Zealand. Before we got the word out and I could call everybody, yes, my mom. She called and was like, ‘Jeffrey, are you alright? Are you alright?’ And then a friend of mine [who] very tearfully and hysterically left a message,” he said on Watch What Happens Live.

Back when Chloë Grace Moretz was just a teenager, she was the victim of a death hoax that claimed she had died in a snowboarding accident in Switzerland. At the time, Chloë said that many concerned family members were calling her and it was really upsetting.

“I’ve had my loved ones calling crying to check and see if I’m alive. Don’t make this up. It’s not real. I am fully alive and here. You’re sick," Chloë wrote on social media, later adding, “I don't know who made this up but you’re disgusting. I am not dead. I did not die from snowboarding. It isn’t even snowing here in Switzerland.”

In 2018, fake rumors swirled that Henry Cavill had died -- and he was just as shocked as everyone else! On Instagram, he posted a photo reacting to the fake news story and looked pretty confused.

“When you learn that you died 2 days ago....” Henry captioned the image.

Gabourey Sidibe made headline news when it was rumored that she had died back in 2017. She decided to respond to the hoax in a hilarious way in her memoir This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, joking that she had indeed died while shooting an intense scene for a new movie.

“A scene for an upcoming movie…required me to run,” she wrote in her book. “I guess my big fat heart could not take it! I should’ve known better than to be fat and run at the same time. There is no date or location in the article, so it’s unclear when and where I died.”

Reba McEntire was the subject of a death hoax back in 2012 when reports on social media alleged that she had died after falling off of a mountain while working on a film in Austria. In response, Reba told fans that she wasn’t even in Austria -- but would love to be filming a movie there.

“There is a rumor going around that I died after falling off a mountain in Austria yesterday while shooting a movie,” she wrote. “While I would love to be shooting a movie in Austria, I definitely did not fall off a mountain! Nor am I dead! I am alive and kicking!!!”

Years ago, Zach Braff was alleged to have taken his own life by overdosing but he quickly reassured fans that wasn’t the case. In a video posted to social media, Zach said he was alive and joked about the way he probably would have died, if that were the case.

“I’m alive. I’m here at Scrubs shooting the new Scrubs title sequence which is a little bit like dying, so I guess that was semi-accurate. Also, I would never off myself with pills. If I had to do it, I would do it the way that everyone else would do it – by hitting myself with pots and pans,” Zach joked.

In 2011, rumors swirled that Jon Bon Jovi had died after suffering from cardiac arrest and being found unconscious in a room at the Empress Hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The report alleged that he was rushed to Jersey Shore Medical Center but was later pronounced dead. In response, the musician shared a photo, joking about the hoax.