In early January 2023, there was a circulating fake news about the demise of actor John Travolta, which prompted readers to express concern about his current state as he is, in fact, alive.
We found no reliable reporting that indicated anything about Travolta being in bad health, admitted to a hospital, or anything similar.
On December 30, 2022, a new brand was established, which included information about the numerous hoaxes surrounding the actor’s previous deaths. Although there was evidence to support this claim, we were unable to find its whereabouts.
“An actor was the victim of an internet death hoax.”
We came across this website, but that wasn’t the sole aspect that caught our attention. According to Mediamass.Net’s “About Us” page, it specializes in publishing satirical content, which might have been overlooked by certain readers.
The article was not published when it was claimed to have been last updated in January 2023, according to the top story on mediamass.Net.
In 2013, we were looking at this article on the Wayback Machine’s Internet Archive, thanks to the back way. We now know that the new death hoax was not true, among other things. The date and headline in the article were changed to give a misleading appearance to the new story.
The Latest Death Rumor
The roots of the more recent death hoax appeared to stem from an article with the headline, “John Travolta Dead at 68.”.
The website allows anyone to create a “prank” article, which can then be shared with friends. The address for the website sounds like a local news website, channel46news.Com. This story was published on the prank website on December 30, 2022.
The “trick” story was written as follows.
John Travolta Dead at 68.
The famous actor was found unconscious in his home when a family member found him, the family member called 911 and ambulances arrived rushing him to the hospital and for about 2 hours the actor was still unconscious, until 11:43am, He had stopped breathing and from then on had passed away. No further details has been provided has doctors are still trying to find the cause for his death. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends who had lost. Some fans have posted on Twitter saying “Rest in peace John Travolta, Heaven has gained another angel and you are with Olivia in heaven”. We send our love for family, friends and fans.
In the year 2020, Kelly Preston, who was an actor and Travolta’s wife, sadly passed away due to breast cancer. According to CBS News, he suffered a seizure and hit his head in a bathtub, ultimately leading to his demise at the age of 16. It is worth mentioning that this incident occurred on January 2, 2009, which happened to be around the same time as the anniversary of Travolta’s son, Jett’s, passing. Consequently, the false news of his death was widely circulated.
Facebook Users Spread the False Death Rumor
We came across several Facebook posts where users appeared to believe in the recent death “prank” or hoax about Travolta supposedly passing away.
Some commenters under these posts pointed to the story from mediamass.Net as proof that Travolta was not dead, while again pointing out that the article was nearly a decade old and had nothing new to do with the death hoax.
YouTube False Death Rumors
“30 minutes ago/ Rest in peace John Travolta/ Farewell John Travolta,” “John Travolta has recently passed away at his residence, He will be laid to rest alongside his companion Newton-John,” and “10 Minutes Ago / Unfortunate News John Travolta Has Passed Away Anticipated Soon Family Get Ready To Bid Farewell.” Similar to YouTube videos with titles like Some users also seemed to have encountered previous false reports of Travolta’s demise.
Each of these videos were deceptive and untrue.
In the final months of 2022, we read further about online death hoaxes involving various celebrities, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, Jim Carrey, Amy Roloff, Alan Jackson, Julia Roberts, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Dick Van Dyke, Simon Cowell, and Bruce Willis.