14 DAY TRIAL // Two-time Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman is not dead. Despite what you might have read online about him in the past 24 hours, he is alive and well, and getting ready for his 85th birthday tomorrow, Friday, January 30, 2015.
Reports of his death started to make the rounds because of a misunderstanding, and were turned into a hoax when they picked up speed, with the hope of getting more likes and shares for a Facebook page set up specifically for this purpose.
“Gene Hackman Is Gone but Still in Charge”
ET Canada says that reports of Hackman’s death popped up online in greater number after Kevin Costner was awarded for lifetime achievement at the Critics’ Choice Awards 2015 a couple of weeks ago.
In his acceptance speech, he said that he felt like Sean Connery or Hackman deserved to receive the award, but they “couldn’t be there.” If you’re an Internet hoaxer, that’s the kind of ambiguous line you need to create a storm inside the proverbial teacup.
However, what really tipped the scales and added credibility to the rumors was a headline from Grantland that read, “The Greatest Living American Actor at 85: Gene Hackman Is Gone but Still in Charge,” that was picked up by Yahoo! News portal.
The “Gone” in there did it, because, readers assumed, it would not be there if he hadn’t died. The article, however, made it clear that the author was only talking about Hackman’s decision to retire from making movies, not about his death.
An updated version now reads “Gene Hackman Is Retired,” while a clarification at the bottom of the article reads, “Because of an unintentional misunderstanding stemming from our original headline, ‘The Greatest Living American Actor at 85: Gene Hackman Is Gone but Still in Charge,’ we’ve changed the title of this piece. Mr. Hackman is very much alive.”
The Facebook fake page confirming actor’s death
Before Grantland got the chance to edit the title of the article, a Facebook page “confirming” the actor’s death had already been set up and was getting a lot of traffic, the aforementioned media outlet says. It was called RIP Gene Hackman, of course.
As it happened before with other celebrities, the text on it broke the news of Hackman’s passing, offered some details about the tragedy (apparently, he “died” on Monday) and asked for comments, likes and shares as a means to show sympathy and send condolences to the family.
Even actor Dylan McDermott seems to have fallen victim to this hoax, tweeting a RIP message for Gene. It is no longer online, because he eventually realized that believing some of the things he reads online without further research is not the best course of action.
I guess Gene Hackman's death was a celebrity hoax. People have too much damn time on their hands...
— Dylan McDermott (@DylanMcDermott) January 28, 2015
Shoutout to @Grantland33 for getting a lot of people to think that Gene Hackman is dead. Nice work.
— Peter Avellino (@PeterAPeel) January 28, 2015