Gene Hackman Dead, "Gone" - 2015 Death Hoax Tricks Twitter Fans To Mourn Retired Actor Who Is Still Alive, Turns 85 On Jan 30

No, Gene Hackman is not dead. In fact, tomorrow, Jan. 30, 2015, he turns 85 years old, arguably making him the greatest living actor of all time. Unfortunately for some heavy-hearted Twitter fans of the Royal Tennenbaums star, a recent death hoax, of sorts, surrounding Hackman spread earlier this week, sending many into an early stage of mourning, even though he's alive and well. This all started when Grantland published a career retrospective article on the actor entitled: "The Greatest Living American Actor at 85: Gene Hackman Is Gone But Still in Charge." You can probably see where the confusion came from!

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While the article did cause some confusion, it makes a great case for considering Hackman the greatest living American actor. Unfortunately, the public focused too much on the word "gone" in the headline, thinking it meant he was dead, though it really was referring to his retirement from acting. Luckily, The Hollywood Reporter cleared up the confusion, reaching out to a representative of Hackman who explained that he was still very much alive and looking forward to his birthday this week.

To be fair, this isn't a "death hoax" since the Twitter reactions were just concerning the title of the article. We live in a time of headline readers rather than article reader, so the context of the article was lost with all focus jumping to conclusions about the headline.

While most of Twitter is caught up on the fact that this was a hoax, let's look at some of the tweets that mourned the great actor a bit too early:

…made sure I was able to get a beer and then I headed home frozen. But what a cool guy. RIP Gene Hackman, truly one of the best ever.

— iNacho (@kickitupanacho) January 28, 2015

RIP actor Gene Hackman #RIPGeneHackman — Debra Borchardt (@WallandBroad) January 28, 2015

RIP Gene Hackman. May you now progress into the fairest of the seasons. #TheRoyalTenenbaums

— Andy Bedingfield (@aNdY_Be3) January 28, 2015

Anyway- Happy Birthday, Gene! What do you think of this new “death hoax” drama? Let us know in the comments section below!