'Dead or alive?' Dharmendra joins list of stars declared dead too soon

From Hemingway to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the world has seen a long line of stars 'killed' by hoaxes of false death reports that spread fast, only to be debunked hours later

Coming back from the dead is a miracle all of us have been taught is a deed best left to the divine beings. But in the age of instant news and viral forwards, it has become a recurring event for celebrities where their deaths are announced prematurely, and they turn out to be, well, alive.

 

Over the years, the rush to be first with breaking news and the wildfire spread of misinformation online has led to repeated false claims of famous people’s deaths.

 

The latest victim of such misinformation was veteran actor Dharmendra, whose supposed “death” trended across platforms early Tuesday before his family confirmed that the 89-year-old was alive and responding to treatment. The episode mirrors a pattern that has trapped many well-known names before him, both in India and abroad. 

The announcement of Jayaprakash Narayan’s death in Lok Sabha 

At 1.10 p.m. on March 23, 1979, All India Radio stopped its regular programming to announce that Jayaprakash Narayan had passed away, a declaration that would soon be remembered as one of the most embarrassing blunders of the government. The announcement was quickly picked up by news agencies and broadcast nationwide, sending shock waves across the country. Within minutes, crowds of reporters, photographers, and anxious citizens rushed to Jaslok Hospital in Bombay where he was admitted.

 

 

President Sanjeeva Reddy immediately flew to Bombay, while at 1.15 p.m., Lok Sabha Speaker K S Hegde, who was informed by Prime Minister Morarji Desai, conveyed the “news” of JP’s death to a visibly shaken Parliament. After observing the customary two-minute silence, the House was adjourned, though this time under extraordinary and tragic circumstances.

 

But the supposed tragedy unravelled just as quickly. Barely thirty minutes later came the stunning correction: Jayaprakash Narayan was alive. Ironically, it was Janata Party President Chandra Shekhar who took to the hospital loudspeakers, his voice trembling, to tell the gathered crowd that JP was still alive, though gravely ill.

 

The blunder, as later revealed, did not originate from the media but from within the Government’s own intelligence network, a chain of official miscommunication that culminated in the government’s most mortifying error. 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee: false reports before his final illness

 

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the subject of false death reports on August 16, 2018, hours before he actually passed away. Several media outlets prematurely reported his demise while he was still under treatment at Aiims, New Delhi.

 

Aiims later issued a clarification confirming he was alive until 5:05 pm, the official time of death. Fact-checkers later called out the false posts as examples of media haste and lack of source verification.

 

Amartya Sen: the Nobel laureate ‘killed’ by a fake tweet

 

In October 2023, a fake post on X (formerly Twitter) impersonating Nobel winner Claudia Goldin falsely announced that Amartya Sen had died. The misinformation spread swiftly across social platforms and even appeared on some news portals before being debunked.

 

Sen’s daughter Nandana Dev Sen swiftly clarified that her father was alive, teaching at Harvard, and “very much active". She criticised the spread of falsehoods and thanked those who verified facts before sharing.

 

Mark Twain: the original fake obituary

 

In one of history’s earliest celebrity hoaxes, American author Mark Twain had to issue a statement in 1897, famously quipping, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

 

The confusion arose after newspapers mistook an ailing relative for Twain himself, publishing premature obituaries that the writer found more amusing than offensive.

 

George HW Bush: the false presidential alert

 

In 1992, a prank caller pretending to be the US President’s doctor told broadcasters that George HW Bush had died while travelling. The misinformation nearly aired live before producers verified the source. CNN later reported the entire episode as a hoax, calling it a wake-up call for newsroom verification protocols.

 

Ernest Hemingway: amused by his own obituaries

 

The legendary author Ernest Hemingway, who survived wars, plane crashes, and near-death experiences, reportedly collected clippings of false obituaries about himself. He treated them with humour, saying they gave him perspective on “how I’d be remembered".

 

When he actually died in 1961, editors who had once prematurely declared him dead finally had to print his true obituary — with irony not lost on readers.

 

Steve Jobs: Bloomberg’s 17-page mistake

 

In 2008, Bloomberg News accidentally published a 17-page obituary of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, three years before his real death. The document was part of its routine obituary updates but was mistakenly released online.

 

The draft’s placeholder lines gave away the blunder: “Steve Jobs ... has XXXX. He was TK.” The error rattled markets and became one of journalism’s most notorious publication mishaps. Bloomberg later retracted the story, calling it an “incomplete report".

 

The dangers of viral misinformation

 

While these cases vary in nature, they underline the dangers of unverified information spreading online. In nearly every instance, official sources, including family members, spokespersons or the celebrities themselves, had to intervene to stop misinformation from spiralling further.

 

As Dharmendra’s case shows once again, in the modern media race, being first often trumps being right, even when the subject is life and death.