Sometimes things happen that are just not planned. Sometimes these things are upsetting to some people. I don't know how many people out there liked to look at Raymond, the television program that is on reruns in some areas now, but Peter Boyle, the actor who played Raymond's father had one of these events happen to him. When he got sick in 1990, his obituary was published in the newspaper. The problem was that the man was still alive and didn't die until 2006. I guess this must have been very upsetting to him at the time. The thing is this has happened to a lot of people. For some reason these things are not checked out very well by the papers and television stations before they are published.

These things can be sad, but also funny. CNN had made up a draft obituary for Ronald Reagan The problem was that the same obituary had been prepared in advance for Fidel Castro. I guess this wouldn't have been so bad except some of the facts didn't fit very well. Here is an example of what I am talking about. Castro was listed as having been a lifeguard, movie star and athlete. The obituary was discovered on a CNN website. Along with this obituary was one for Dick Cheney that described him as the UK's favorite grandmother. Hey you have got to love this stuff. There was even a draft obit for the Pope which cited his love of racing.

Paul McCartney
Photo Source: Creative Commons 2.0

Things really got wild in 1966 when Paul McCartney was said to have died by a radio show host in 1966. A person had called into the show with the information. After that, another DJ was fired because he was talking about McCartney's death. This all led to rumors that McCartney had really died and was replaced by a look alike. This caused an Urban Legend. It said that not only did he die and there was a replacement for him, but that the man that replaced him also sounded just like him. It was claimed that clues existed in songs that could prove this. It all seems to have started even before the phone call to the radio station when Drake University's newspaper published a story entitled, “Is Paul McCartney Dead?” One of the clues was supposed to exist in Revolution 9 when it was played backwards.

Steve Jobs obituary was published by Bloomberg on 27 August 2008, all 17 pages of it. Jobs thought that it was so funny that when he made his next appearance, he quoted Mark Twain who also had been the victim of an early obituary. He said, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". It was a good thing for Jobs that he was able to laugh at this mistake. Some people that this has happened to have gotten very upset. I guess some of them believed it was a bad omen.

Abe Vigoda was another famous character actor. Those of you old enough to remember the tv show Barney Miller will remember Vigoda as Fish, the detective. In 1982 he was referred to as the Late Abe Vigoda in People Magazine. Maybe they meant that he wasn't on time a lot? Anyway after that happened he thought it would be funny to pose for photos sitting in a coffin holding People Magazine in one hand.

Bob Hope
Photo Source: USAF

So far I have talked about people that have had premature obituarys. There was a person who actually had this happen to him more than once. I guess when you live a very long life your chances of this happening increase if you are famous. Bob Hope, the famous comedian had an obituary published in 1998 by the Associated Press which then was announced in the House of Representatives and broadcast live on C-SPAN. How embarrassing for these companies. As if this was not enough it happened again in 2003 when a CNN.com draft obituary on Hope got out. This time they had used the template of the Queen Mother for his obituary and his stated that his was Queen Consort and the UK's favorite grandmother again. Bob Hope died three months later, could it have been from the stress of being Queen Consort?

We all like Betty White and she has been around for quite awhile, but on July 7, 2009 a newscaster who was covering Michael Jackson's funeral service was at Forest Lawn Memorial Park and stated on television that poor Betty was one of the famous people buried there. I guess Betty didn't know it since she was still walking around.

James Earl Jones, the actor who played Darth Vader among many other roles, had his death announced in 1998 at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game that was being announced over the radio. What the broadcaster really meant to say was that James Earl Ray had died, that was the man that had assassinated Martin Luther King.

Remember Frank Gorshin, he played the Riddler on the Batman tv show? He was in a car crash in 1957 and was reported dead in a newspaper in California. Gorshin didn't die until 2005. Jeff Goldblum was also reported dead in 2009 on an Australian news station. Will Ferrell was reported dead in 2006 by iNewswire. They said that he was killed in a paragliding accident. The only problem was that Will Farrell has never went paragliding.

Queen Elizabeth II
Photo Source: NASA

Here is a good one. Queen Elizabeth II was said to have died on May 17, 2010. It was announced on BBC Radio West Midlands. The host of the program then played God Save The Queen. His exact words were, "Queen Elizabeth II has now died." I don't understand this, but later the newscaster admitted that the whole thing was a joke. I guess I just don't understand English humor.

Joe DiMaggio lived long enough to see the announcement of his death broadcast along the bottom of a television screen in January 1999. It seems that the text had been preloaded for when DiMaggio died because it was felt he was near death, but a technician pressed the wrong button putting the text on the screen. DiMaggio died two months later.