Bon Jovi still alive! Other celebs once victims of death hoaxes

A rumor was brewing on Good Friday. Social media saw stories popping up that New Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi had died suddenly at the age of 63.

Not true. He’s still living on a prayer (see what I did there?).

How do these things happen? In this case, it was probably Ioannis Vasilopoulos who once designed an album cover for the band that passed away on April 7. That in turn started a shortened keyword search “Bon Jovi dead.” It was "the man who designed an album cover for Bon Jovi, dead." But you know how keyword searches go. And that’s likely all it took.

So no, Jon Bon Jovi is still “holdin' on to what we got.”

Between the mayor of Toms River calling him out over his helping the homeless and now the death hoax, it’s been a tough month for Sayreville’s star.

He’s not the only one.

Here’s a look back at just some of the many death rumors of celebrities. Even the ones who have since passed were certainly alive at the time. Imagine opening your cell phone in the morning and reading a news report that you didn’t exist!

Celebrity Death Rumors Over The Years

Tom Cruise

In 2010, the actor was marked down as dead following a strange plumbing accident in New Zealand. Do they have more dangerous plumbing than we do?

George Clooney

No, Clooney never died in a plane crash in Colorado. No, he also didn’t die falling off a Cliff in New Zealand. (What is it about New Zealand?)

Gene Hackman

Years before his actual death, poor Gene Hackman had to read about his death. The claim was that he had passed away at 85, and it was all from a misconstrued headline about his retirement. It read: “The Greatest Living American Actor at 85: Gene Hackman Is Gone But Still in Charge.” They changed the word gone to retired to clear up confusion. Shouldn’t “still in charge” have been a context clue?

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

Supposedly fell off New Zealand’s Kauri Cliffs while filming a stunt in 2014. (New Zealand again.) Johnson shot back at the rumor mongering on social media, writing, "I would love to meet the person who is starting rumors of my death – to show them how a dead foot feels up their a**.”

Brad Pitt

A big rumor went viral in 2016 that the actor had been shot to death. It was found to be a phishing scheme to entice readers to click a link to a site that would steal their data.

Morgan Freeman

A RIP Morgan Freeman Facebook page started the rumor that the iconic actor had passed away. Like a boss, his response to it was, “I keep reading that I have died. I hope those stories are not true …”

Russell Crowe

The actor was announced as dead by a New York City radio station in 2010. The cause of death was falling off an Austrian mountain. “Unable to answer,” Crowe tweeted, back when it was called Twitter. “Fell off a mountain in Austria, all over red rover. Don't know how I got there, but the media are never wrong. G’Bye"

At least it wasn’t New Zealand.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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