Jackie Chan is quickly becoming the new Morgan Freeman in the world of fake dead celebrities as rumours of his demise refuse to, well, die.
Often fake rumours reporting a death of a celebrity disappear as quickly as they appear, but false reports claiming that Hollywood action star Jackie Chan has passed away have refused to dissipate after months of circulating vigorously across social media websites including Facebook.
And the rumours have been so prolific that Jackie Chan may just take the coveted top spot of most famously fake dead celebrity of 2013 (according to number of queries we receive), a position held firmly by Morgan Freeman over the past couple of years. So popular have the rumours been, that he posted a picture of himself (above) with that days newspaper along with the message –
Earlier rumours asserted he died in a car crash, with later variants claiming he died during filming a stunt for Rush Hour 5.
Celebrity death hoaxes are often designed simply to waste the time of other people but can often be used for more nefarious purposes, such as baiting users into survey scams or luring them to install malware.
As always, verify such news before you pass it onto your friends. Online media sites will usually have breaking news of this calibre within minutes so you can confirm stories immediately. You can read more on celebrity death hoaxes in our blog post here.