These celebrity conspiracy theories had a lot of people fooled. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for celebrities who are alive, but who have been victims of conspiracies or hoaxes regarding their deaths.
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00:00 [Music]
00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for celebrities who are alive,
00:11 but have been victims of conspiracies or hoaxes regarding their deaths.
00:14 "And that's how Regina George died. No, I'm totally kidding."
00:18 Number 10. Macaulay Culkin
00:22 Macaulay Culkin's band, The Pizza Underground, played at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas
00:26 in 2014. Culkin's first words to the audience when they hit the stage were apparently, "I'm alive."
00:31 It might seem like a weird thing to say to a crowd of people before a show,
00:38 but Culkin wasn't just stating the obvious. He was disproving a rumor that he had died.
00:42 "Come and get me." "Who are you?"
00:45 "Now you're dead!"
00:55 We're not sure if a bunch of people who just watched My Girl for the first time and thought
00:59 it was a documentary, but the rumors had gotten so loud that legit outlets like People and MTV
01:04 News reported on him being alive. "Better not tell anyone." "Better not either." "Well, let's
01:10 spit at it." "Okay." "See you tomorrow." "Okay, see ya." Number 9. Cher
01:18 Normally, we'd say that CNN is a very trustworthy source for information, but that's only if it's
01:23 actually CNN and not a fake tweet credited to the outlet reporting on Cher's passing.
01:27 "It turns out the hashtag #NowThatcherIsDead, hopefully you can see this, was being read that
01:32 now that Cher's dead." Indeed, news of the star's supposed death in 2012 came from a shamp post,
01:39 and well, you know how it goes. Soon enough, even Kim Kardashian was tweeting about her shock and
01:44 confusion. Once she found out it wasn't true, she posted again writing, "Can't believe people
01:49 who would make up a sick joke like Cher died." "Did you get a lot of people tweeting?" "Yes,
01:53 I got, there was a big Twitter fest. It was trending, 'She's dead.'" These people need
01:59 to get a life. We imagine she wasn't the only one who felt that way. Sadly, this wouldn't be
02:04 the last time a death hoax about Cher would circulate. "Do you believe in life after love?"
02:09 Number 8. Jeremy Renner We arrive at Jeremy Renner's house in Los Angeles,
02:17 then we expect a quiet sanctuary, a shattered man recovering from a brutal accident. But what's that?
02:24 On January 1st, 2023, Jeremy Renner was in a horrible snowplow accident that almost killed
02:31 him. However, he survived and embarked on a recovery journey after a successful surgery
02:35 and some time in the ICU. "He was intubated, he was out, he um, he was breathing, it was so horrible."
02:46 The actor actually sent out a message mere days after the incident, showing the world he was okay.
02:50 A few months later, however, a fake story circulated. In June, Twitter was home to yet
02:55 another celebrity death rumor that went viral. This time, it was Renner, and the cause was said
03:00 to be a freak escalator accident. If you were on the platform back then, you might have noticed
03:05 the trending hashtag, #RipJeremyRenner. "Being good isn't always enough to keep you alive."
03:14 I see. Number 7, Steven Seagal. While many celebrities have to suffer through one death
03:19 hoax in their lives, there are some who see fake reports of their passing multiple times.
03:23 "Once we find the bad guys, we're gonna look for the DC-5. If we find it, doc, you're gonna tap
03:28 into the oxygen supply system with the sleep agent. It's lights out, take the bird." One of
03:33 those stars happened to be controversial actor Steven Seagal. In 2013, an RIP Steven Seagal
03:39 page was created on Facebook. It was bogus. In 2015, it was reported that he had died following
03:52 a massive heart attack. Yet here we are, nearly a decade later in 2024, and we can assure you
03:57 that while Steven Seagal isn't as active in the industry as he once was, he is still very much
04:02 alive. "You still dangerous?" "Let me tell you this, the guys that I'm training in UFC,
04:09 you know, some of them have gotten their championship belts, world championship
04:14 belts because they've attributed that to me and me teaching them, so I still know a thing or two."
04:19 Number 6, Jackie Chan. "Hello, yes, this is Jackie speaking." "What the hell is going on?"
04:24 "Hello?" "Jackie!" Given the stunts Jackie Chan does in his movies, it's safe to say he finds
04:31 himself in danger far more than most of his fellow celebrities. Considering that, news of his death
04:35 might seem more believable when it's initially reported. "Is this what you want?" "You got a
04:39 fraction of a second to give that ass back to his rightful owner." "Don't talk, kill him!" "What's
04:44 the matter with your mind, huh?" But the truth is, Chan is among us despite multiple stories claiming
04:51 otherwise throughout the decades. We don't need to go through each hoax one by one, but in at
04:55 least three cases, news of Chan passing away has circulated online. The supposed causes cited for
05:01 these fake deaths have ranged from accident to heart attack. Thankfully, each of the reports
05:05 thus far have been baseless. "You scared me!" Number 5, Lindsay Lohan. "And you are a zombie bride?"
05:19 "An ex-wife." "Love it." Lindsay Lohan defined many of our childhoods back in the 90s and 2000s
05:26 with roles in iconic flicks like The Parent Trap and Mean Girls. With that much fame also came a
05:30 lot of attention and practically her every move and struggles with things like substance use were
05:35 made public. In 2010, the public was falsely led to believe that she had lost her life. "Some girls
05:40 say they saw her head go all the way around, but that's just a rumor." It reportedly started via
05:44 an edit to the actress's Wikipedia page before social media took over, helping the misinformation
05:49 spread far and wide. Of course, Lohan was thankfully not dead. "Look, I told you I'm perfectly fine,
05:54 okay?" "Okay, all right. It's okay. We'll try later." In recent years, she's made something of
06:00 a comeback in the industry while also starting a family. Number 4, Morgan Freeman. In The Shawshank
06:06 Redemption, Andy Dufresne speaks iconic words to his friend Redding. "Get busy living,
06:11 or get busy dying." In 2012, the man who brought Redding to life, actor Morgan Freeman,
06:18 was rumored to have done the latter. The hoax began with a post reporting that beloved actor
06:23 Morgan Freeman passed away due to an artery rupture. It gained traction and was promptly
06:27 debunked. This wouldn't be the first or last Freeman death hoax either. "So, you're really
06:33 him, aren't you?" "You want more proof? I haven't done the pillow soft thing in a while." "That's
06:38 all right. I believe you." At one point, he reacted flawlessly, posting, "Like Mark Twain,
06:43 I keep reading that I have died. I hope those stories are not true, but if they are,
06:47 I'm happy to report that my afterlife seems identical to my life when I was alive."
06:51 "How do we change the world?" "One act of random kindness at a time." "One act of random kindness."
07:02 Number 3, Dwayne Johnson. We're all thankful that, today, in 2024, we can smell what the
07:09 Rock is cooking. However, there have been multiple occasions in which fans thought
07:13 that Dwayne Johnson had left us. "See you tomorrow, boss." "I'll see you then." "Don't
07:17 stay too late." "I'll stay as long as I want, woman." "I knew you would say that." He has
07:21 been the victim of false death reports involving stunts gone awry a few times. There were ones back
07:26 in 2014 that had him falling from the Corrie Cliffs in New Zealand while filming Fast 7.
07:31 Then, in 2019, he was falsely reported to have perished due to a stunt gone wrong once more.
07:36 "Hang tight, Jed." "No, I'm not doing anything. Stop including me in your stunts."
07:40 "Get him, Ashton. Hit him with the stick." "Whoa." "You're doing a great job, Jed."
07:51 That hoax spread because of a fake BBC headline. Don't worry, the Rock is okay.
07:55 "How do I find him?" "The official answer is, you don't.
08:03 You killed Han. Almost killed my family." "He also tried to put me in a body bag, too."
08:09 Number 2. Avril Lavigne While many celebs have to deal with false
08:13 death reports, Avril Lavigne's situation is more, shall we say, complicated.
08:17 It goes beyond a few fake articles claiming she's dead. Indeed, there's a whole conspiracy
08:26 theory. This is how it goes. Some believe she took her own life in 2003.
08:31 "It's a damn cold night, trying to figure out this life."
08:40 But what about all those Avril Lavigne concerts and albums and live appearances since?
08:44 Well, as the conspiracy goes, Lavigne's body double, Melissa Vandella, was used by the label
08:49 as a replacement to continue making money off the star's name. Lavigne has repeatedly said these
08:53 rumors are false. The blog post at the root of the whole thing even stated, "It was created to
08:57 show how conspiracy theories can look true." There you have it.
09:00 "When you're gone, the pieces of my heart are missing you."
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09:23 Number 1 – Paul McCartney
09:32 Paul McCartney is one of the most popular musicians of all time,
09:35 from one of the most popular bands of all time.
09:37 So it would only make sense that the hoax surrounding his supposed death would be,
09:47 according to Time Magazine, one of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories.
09:51 The Paul is Dead conspiracy was born in 1966 with the belief that McCartney had passed away
09:56 in a car accident. The nonsense theory posits that a doppelganger then took his place.
10:00 Britain's security service is even said to have helped make it happen. McCartney, for his part,
10:04 wasn't amused by it, calling the rumors "bloody stupid" in a 1969 interview with Life Magazine.
10:19 Which death hoax shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments.
10:23 "It's alive. It's alive. It's alive! It's alive!"
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