Unfortunately, there is going to come a day when former Price Is Right host Bob Barker is no longer with us, but on Monday, a lot of people already thought he was dead. An article was published that states the 93-year-old Barker allegedly died from a head injury which happened after a fall and actually “split his head open.” Well, Bob Barker is alive and doing fine as of this time which means he was simply the next victim of the celebrity death hoax.
It has happened to Willie Nelson , Charlie Sheen, Reese Witherspoon, James Earl Jones , and many others, but they are all still alive. The same can now be said for Bob Barker as a lot of people on Facebook and other forms of social media truly do believe he is absolutely and positively dead.
While it may burst the bubble of some people, it will relieve a lot of others to know that this hoax has no truth at all to it at this time.
An article making the rounds comes from a site called Action News 3 states that Barker’s fall and head injury caused him to pass away hours later. One of the first signs that the information in the article is false is that there are no sources and the second reason is that they got his age wrong.
The article speaks of Barker taking a fall at his home in Hollywood Hills early in the morning, but it never says what date the fall happened. It also has quotes from the police but never mentions the name of an officer or sergeant or even a spokesperson.
Some people may think that the information regarding Barker’s fall sounds familiar, and it is because it really did happen. As reported last month by People , Barker did fall at his home in Hollywood Wills and he was even taken to the emergency room to undergo a series of tests.
After a few hours, he was released by the hospital when doctors realized he did not suffer any serious injuries. The fake article states that after a few hours at the hospital, Bob Barker ended up dying due to a serious head wound he sustained in the fall.
Business 2 Community even called out “Action News 3” on the celebrity death hoax and said there is absolutely “no truth” to it at all. I didn’t help the fake article’s credibility that not a single other news outlet reported the story, but why would they?
It didn’t happen.
No matter what anyone says, the celebrity death hoax does work because a lot of people share articles on social media without reading or researching the truth. As of Monday evening, the fake news article had more than 90,000 shares on Facebook and it kept on growing.
Sadly, there was a real death in the celebrity world on Monday as actor and Pulitzer-winning playwright Sam Shepard died at the age of 73, as reported by the New York Times .
The celebrity death hoax is one of those things that is going to be around forever or at least as long as the Internet exists. For some reason, people like to stir up others and get them to believe something that isn’t true, but it’s also a great way to accumulate hits for their site. Such is the case in the former Price Is Right host who is getting on in years, but Bob Barker is not dead at all. He’s still alive and heading toward 100 on life’s version of the showcase showdown.
[Featured Image by Frederick M.Brown/Getty Images]