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| - On Feb. 16, 2023, we turned our attention to a strange article hosted by MediaMass.net. The story showed the headline, "'Tim Curry dead 2023' : Actor killed by internet death hoax."
However, the only death hoax that we could find for the former actor and singer was being pushed by the very same article.
Here's what we mean by that.
The 'Update'
On the day that we wrote this fact check, the article on MediaMass.net showed an "update" that read, "UPDATE 16/02/2023 : This story seems to be false."
We looked at an archived version of the same MediaMass.net article from March 2015. It read, "UPDATE 24/03/2015 : This story seems to be false."
In other words, the article's dates are changed every day to whatever today's date might be. This would give the false impression that the death hoax is always new, apparently all to drive traffic to the old and seemingly unhelpful article.
The Death Hoax
In March 2015, the same article said that the supposed death hoax went like this:
At about 11 a.m. ET on Sunday (March 22, 2015), our beloved actor Tim Curry passed away. Tim Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.
On Feb. 16, 2023, the article showed the same sentences, except with today's date instead of March 22, 2015:
At about 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday (February 15, 2023), our beloved actor Tim Curry passed away. Tim Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.
The Statement from 'the Actor's Reps'
The end of the 2015 version of the misleading article claimed to show a fresh statement from Curry's agent or other representatives:
On Monday (March 23) the actor's reps officially confirmed that Tim Curry is not dead. "He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet," they said.
The same statement that purportedly came from "the actor's reps" was dated as Feb. 16, 2023 in the live version of the article:
On Thursday (February 16) the actor's reps officially confirmed that Tim Curry is not dead. "He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet," they said.
Again, this wasn't a new death hoax, nor were we even sure it was something that people had shared in the past on social media. Like we mentioned before, the dates in the story simply appeared to be updated regularly to make it look like the article and death hoax were new.
We found no recent news articles that said anything about Curry's health, other than various stories that reported he suffered a stroke in 2012 and has since used a wheelchair.
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