•
Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist living in Ukraine, was widely reported on May 29, 2018, to have been shot dead. A day later, Babchenko appeared at a press conference with the
Security Service of Ukraine, claiming to have staged his death to expose Russian agents. •
Lawrence Joseph Bader, an
Akron, Ohio, kitchenware salesman who faked death by drowning. On May 15, 1957, he left his wife Mary Lou (then five months pregnant), their three children, and five years of unpaid income taxes, sailed out on
Lake Erie, and vanished (right after increasing his life insurance policy). His boat was found abandoned, and the
Coast Guard announced that no one could have survived. In 1960, he was pronounced dead. He turned up in
Omaha, Nebraska, as married broadcaster John "Fritz" Johnson. He was found by his 21-year-old niece, and caught when his fingerprints matched those of Bader; "Johnson" insisted the rest of his life that he had no recollection of his life as Bader. He died of a tumor in 1966; the cancer, which had caused his eye to be removed in 1964, may have preexisted before then and caused genuine
amnesia. •
William Baer, a
New York University professor, was declared dead by his
New York Times obituary in May 1942 as a hoax by his students. •
Bill Bailey: The
BBC website reported the death of the British comedian in May 2016, getting his age incorrect in the report. In a 2018 appearance on the BBC's
The Graham Norton Show, Bailey suggested that the report was the result of confusion following the death of a DJ in
Kentucky also named Bill Bailey. •
Scott Baio: A hoax report circulated via e-mail claimed that this American actor had died in a car accident on December 18, 1997. The report was picked up by some media outlets, even causing several members of Baio's family to briefly believe he was dead. •
Josephine Baker: The entertainer was reported in 1942 to have died in Morocco of a "lingering illness". The reports were later disproven; Baker died in 1975. •
Sabine Baring-Gould, English author, had his obituary published in
The New York Times on June 5, 1906; Baring-Gould died in 1924. •
Mandela Barnes, a former member of the
Wisconsin State Assembly and the
Democratic nominee for
Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin in
the 2018 election for governor and lieutenant governor in Wisconsin, was erroneously reported as having been killed in a motorcycle crash north of
Milwaukee. The error was caused by a photo of Barnes incorrectly being broadcast by
the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee during a local news report about a different person being killed in a motorcycle crash. •
Lem Barney, a
Pro Football Hall of Fame member who played 11 seasons with the
Detroit Lions, has been subject to multiple false reports of his death in 2025; a November 29 report was erroneously reported as true by the Hall of Fame and came shortly after a previous report had claimed he had died in a flood. •
P. T. Barnum premature obituary was published, unusually, not because of deception or error, but sympathy. When he took to his deathbed, Barnum expressed the wish that he might read what the papers would say about him. The
New York Evening Sun obligingly printed his obituary on March 24, 1891, two weeks before his actual death on April 7. The newspaper acknowledged to its readers that Barnum was still alive at the time of publication. •
Edward Bartlett was reported in the 1934 edition of ''
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' to have died "about February" the previous year. In fact, he lived until December 21, 1976. •
John Basedow was reported by
PRWeb to have died in Thailand due to the
tsunami resulting from the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; the story was quickly retracted. •
Billy Ray Bates, a basketball player who played in the NBA between 1980 and 1983 and in several other leagues afterwards, was referred to by
Shaquille O'Neal on a live segment of
Inside the NBA in April 2025 as having died.
Charles Barkley, a fellow panelist on the show, had wondered aloud whether Bates was still alive. "I'm doing good for a dead man", Bates told
NJ Advance Media.
Ernie Johnson Jr., the host of
Inside, apologized for the premature obituary, but O'Neal and Barkley did not. •
Charles Baudelaire, a French poet, was reported to have died by Paris newspapers in April 1866, after suffering a massive stroke while in Belgium. He died the following year. •
Beyoncé: On February 23, 2015, a fake news report surfaced on Twitter claiming that the singer was killed in a car crash. The report caused the hashtag #RIPBeyonce to become trending on
Twitter. •
Lal Bihari is the Indian founder of the
Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People, an organisation which highlights the plight of people in
Uttar Pradesh who are incorrectly declared dead by relatives in order to steal their land, usually in collusion with corrupt officials. Bihari himself was officially dead from 1976 to 1994 as a result of his uncle's attempt to acquire his land. Among various attempts to publicize his situation and demonstrate that he was alive, he stood for election against
Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 (and lost). He was awarded the
Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for his 'posthumous' activities. •
Bushwick Bill, rapper best known for being a member of the
Houston hip-hop trio
Geto Boys was mistakenly reported dead on June 9, 2019, while battling pancreatic cancer, but this was debunked by his son. However, he would die later that day. •
Biz Markie, rapper known for his 1989 single "
Just a Friend". In December 2020, it was reported that Markie was staying in a rehabilitation facility as a result of a stroke he had suffered after going into a diabetic coma. On July 1, 2021, rumors of his death circulated on Twitter. His representative told Rolling Stone, "The news of Biz Markie's death is not true, Biz is still under medical care, surrounded by professionals who are working hard to provide the best healthcare possible." Markie died at a Baltimore hospital fifteen days later, on July 16, at age 57. •
Jack Black. On June 4, 2016, the Twitter page of Black's band
Tenacious D announced the actor and musician's death. However, the next day both Black and bandmate
Kyle Gass clarified that the page was hacked and that Black was alive and well. •
Paul Blais, a US Air Force
senior airman, was listed as one of 19 people believed killed in the 1996
Khobar Towers bombing. However, it transpired that he was alive, though in a coma, having been confused with another airman who had died. •
Rudy Boesch: The
Navy SEAL, best known for his appearances on the U.S. reality competition
Survivor, was falsely reported dead in August 2019. Boesch, who was in the late stages of
Alzheimer's disease at the time, died three months later. •
Jon Bon Jovi: singer of the rock band
Bon Jovi. On April 18, 2025, rumors on social media circled that Bon Jovi had died when in actuality it was a miscommunication regarding news reports on the death of Ioannis Vasilopoulos, who had created artwork for several Bon Jovi albums. •
Subhas Chandra Bose: The
Indian nationalist leader, who sought support from the
Axis powers during
World War II, was reported on March 28, 1942, to have died in an airplane crash off the coast of Japan. In response,
Mahatma Gandhi sent a message of condolence to Bose's mother. Bose actually
died as a result of an airplane crash, but in Japanese-occupied Taiwan three years later, on August 18, 1945. •
Peter Boyle, a TV and film actor, was briefly and incorrectly declared deceased in October 1990, a few weeks following a massive
stroke that almost paralyzed him and left him unable to move or speak for nearly six months. His incorrect lifespan of 1933–1990 is listed in the book
Cult Movie Stars by author Danny Peary. Boyle made a complete recovery from the blood clot in his brain and continued acting despite multiple persistent health problems, including
high blood pressure. He had another brush with death in 1999, when he suffered a
heart attack while working on the set of the sitcom
Everybody Loves Raymond, but he again recovered and was working again within one week. Boyle died on December 12, 2006. •
James Brady, White House Press Secretary, was shot in the head during the
1981 assassination attempt of President
Ronald Reagan. Three hours later, amid confusion about the extent of his injuries, all three U.S. broadcast TV networks erroneously announced that Brady had died, triggering an on-air outburst by
ABC News anchor
Frank Reynolds when the information was revealed incorrect. This led to greater subsequent caution about issuing death reports during rapidly developing situations. Brady died on August 4, 2014, 33 years after the shooting. His death was ruled to be a
homicide, since it was ultimately caused by his injury. •
Gordon Brown: Following the death of footballer
Gordon Banks on February 12, 2019,
Sky News presenter
Adam Boulton erroneously reported that the former prime minister of the United Kingdom had died. Boulton corrected himself a few seconds later. •
Adam Buckley: The resident of
Santa Clarita, California, who had
schizophrenia, went missing in June 2018. On July 2, a burned body was found in
Lancaster, and the Los Angeles County Coroner misidentified the body as being Buckley's. In late August, the Coroner released a statement saying that they had misidentified the body, and Buckley was found alive on September 14. •
Muhammadu Buhari,
President of Nigeria, has been the subject of persistent rumors that he had died and been replaced by a
body double after experiencing ill health in 2017. Buhari, 74 years old at the time, suspected the false rumors were ginned up and revived in 2018 by opposing politicians seeking the office in the
2019 presidential election. Buhari died on July 13, 2025, two years after leaving office. •
Rodger Bumpass (voice actor of
Squidward Tentacles): Reported in August 2006 to have died during heart surgery by
Jonesboro, Arkansas, station
KAIT, the
Internet Movie Database, and
Arkansas State University's newsletter. •
Medrick Burnett Jr., a linebacker for the
Alabama A&M Bulldogs college football team, suffered a head injury on October 26, 2024 in a game against rival
Alabama State. Alabama A&M mistakenly reported him deceased on Tuesday, November 26, 2024 based on a tip "from an immediate family member on Tuesday evening", then retracted the announcement the following day when it was learned that he was still alive. He died on the night of November 27, which was formally reported on November 29. •
John Burney: Shortly after the collapse of his business, this resident of
Helena, Arkansas, disappeared on June 11, 1976. He was eventually declared dead, which allowed both his wife and his company to receive life insurance benefits. However, Burney resurfaced in December 1982 when he visited his father who had recently been injured in an accident. In the intervening years, Burney had taken up residence in
Key Largo, Florida, under the name John Bruce and had married a second wife without ever divorcing his first one. He was eventually convicted of fraud. •
Pat Burns, an
NHL coach, was reported to have died from cancer on September 17, 2010, by the
Toronto Star. He actually died two months later on November 19. •
Steve Burns, host of children's show ''
Blue's Clues, was rumored to have died from a drug overdose in 1998; others claimed that Burns was struck and killed by a car. Burns went on The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' to debunk those rumors. •
Barbara Bush, former
First Lady of the United States, had a draft obituary (conspicuously marked "DO NOT PUBLISH") leaked by
CBSNews.com on April 15, 2018, after her family announced that she was in failing health and ending further medical treatment. The following day, a
fake news Website pretending to be
CNN.com falsely claimed Bush had died. Bush died two days after that, on April 17. •
George H. W. Bush was erroneously reported dead in an e-mail by
WBAP-AM/
WBAP-FM, due to a false tip. At the time, Bush was in intensive care recovering from illness. The German magazine
Der Spiegel erroneously published a draft obituary for Bush on December 30, 2012, during his recovery from the same illness. Bush had previously been the subject of another near-miss while President, when
CNN Headline News almost reported a false tip stating Bush had died. Another death hoax circulated in July 2014, when it was reported that Bush had died from food poisoning. Bush
died on November 30, 2018. • Either George H. W. Bush or his son,
George W. Bush, when the moving banner headline on South African television's ETV News read "George Bush is dead" in 2009. A technician who was testing the banner accidentally pressed the "broadcast live for transmission" button, according to the BBC. George H.W. Bush actually died on November 30, 2018, while George W. Bush is still alive as of 2026. ==C==