Gene Hackman Death Hoax: 'Actor Dead' Rumors Trick Celebrity Friends Of Actor

A number of celebrities have fallen victim to the Internet death hoax. The most recent celebrity to taste its after effects is actor Gene Hackman who retired in 2004 soon after he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards.

The origin of the death hoax was an article that appeared recently in an online publication called grantland.com whose original headline read: "The Greatest Living American Actor at 85: Gene Hackman Is Gone But Still in Charge."

Without reading the body of the article, some people glanced at the title and immediately assumed that Hackman had died. They then spread the rumor that Hackman had died – a rumor that spread like crazy on the Internet where it was picked up by many people who also did not bother to read the article.

Strangely, celebrities who came across the rumor on the Internet were also not immune to it and believed it. Actor Dylan McDermott, who worked with Hackman in the film "Runaway Jury" in 2003, was one of them. He posted on Twitter a condolence message that read: "Rest in peace Gene Hackman, One of the very greats."

This added more fuel to the rumors surrounding Hackman's alleged death. However, after about an hour, McDermott deleted it and tweeted that it was a "death hoax and people have too much time on their hands."

Grantland.com also realized the confusion its article created and replaced "gone" in the headline with "retired."

In another incident, Yahoo reported that earlier this month Kevin Costner seemed to have mentioned Hackman and Sean Connery posthumously when accepting an award. This also kicked of a great deal of unwanted speculation on the Internet.

As for Hackman, the 85-year-old actor did not bother to provide any reply to the hoax, but his publicist noted, "He's alive and well, happily retired from acting and focused on writing."