Weird Times Everyone Thought Clint Eastwood Had Died

At 94 years old, Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood is one of those celebrities about whom people ask, "Hey, is he still alive?" Depending on the year, the general internet consensus seems to be yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, and then yes again. That's because the everlasting Eastwood has fallen prey to the same "death hoax" shenanigans as other stars. Per Skyscape, Sean Connery in 1993, Tom Cruise in 2010, Steven Seagall in 2013, Kirk Douglas in 2014 (complete with an obituary published by People), and even the old Paul McCartney death hoax-plus-lookalike conspiracy: Loads of celebrities have been targeted by trolls or (less likely) the legitimately mistaken.

According to the US Leader, the "Dirty Harry" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" actor died in 2017 in his Brentwood, Los Angeles home. Comments beneath the announcement are fittingly sad. Also, Eastwood never had a home in Brentwood, as Snopes later fact-checked. Then in 2019, a video based on a fake CNN story again claimed that Eastwood had died. The same thing happened in 2022, that time with fake pictures of Eastwood in the hospital and prompts to download malware onto curious people's computers. Later in 2023, the YouTube channel Military News posted a video saying that Eastwood had died, complete with links to a video from Facebook. That channel has since been terminated. 

So why in the world does so much fake information get made? Simple. As the Independent explains, folks will click on it and someone somewhere gets money or consumer data.

Clint Eastwood lived an entire lifetime before spurious news about his death started hitting the web. Like we mentioned, his first death hoax came in 2017 when he was 76. That's three years after he directed "American Sniper" in 2014 and one year before he starred in "The Mule" in 2018. It's possible to tell that the article in question is fake, though, as it mocks Eastwood's political leanings rather than reports on his death.

The US Leader article can still be found online, unlike other Eastwood death hoax original posts, videos, and so forth. Opening with some fairly atrocious grammar and nothing about Eastwood's death, the article reads, "Clint Eastwood, more famous for westerns [sic] than politics, is still one of the most beloved figures in conservative circles." Then we enter badly mixed imagery-meets-metaphor territory when the two-paragraph article says, "With his unwavering love for the conservative movement and his hatred for snowflakes, Eastwood made a mark that will never wash away." At this point people should honestly be frowning, going "Huh," and doing a quick Google check to verify the information.

The article says that Eastwood died of "natural causes," mentions the "Orange County Sheriff," and Brentwood, California. Even besides Eastwood never having owned a house in Brentwood, Brentwood isn't in Orange County — it's in Los Angeles County. And so the first Eastwood death hoax came crumbling down, only to be replaced within two years.

Come 2019, hoaxers once again claimed that Clint Eastwood died. This time we get into a Russian doll situation of fake sources and links, with a story popping up on September 2, 2019, on Facebook. As Politifact explains, the now-removed post appeared to feature a story from CNN that itself was fake. "CNN Breaking News," it read, "The actor, filmmaker, musician, and politician dies of heart attack at 89. He was filming a commercial." The post contained an embedded video no longer than a few seconds that displayed a picture of Eastwood plus the CNN logo. Then, after clicking through an age verification message the video presumably chucked viewers into malware or phishing territory.

Interestingly and contrary to its reputation as a disinformation pusher, it was Facebook that originally pointed out the "fake news" status of the 2019 Eastwood death hoax post. This kind of automated Facebook fact-checking function came about a year after Mark Zuckerberg's famously stilted appearance before Congress in 2018 following his company's data-selling Cambridge Analytica scandal. 

It's a good thing, too, because posts like the 2019 Eastwood death hoax demonstrate precisely how easy it is for some rando to make a shoddy video, copy-paste a logo, and upload it to Facebook with malicious intent. In fact, Facebook claims to now have a fairly robust set of policies to stem this kind of thing. Nonetheless, it wouldn't be the last time hoaxers wielded the platform to spread disinformation about Eastwood.  

Our third Clint Eastwood death hoax gets a bit more morbid and involved than before. Snopes has a full account of the tale plus its debunking dating back to December 2022. Once again we start with a spurious Facebook post — multiple, in fact — that led readers into a rabbit hole of fake videos with fake thumbnails, fake pictures, and more. They all employed similarly phrased and sketchy headlines glaringly rigged to be clickbait.

The original Facebook posts in this case wrote in bad bot-speak, "05 Minutes Ago. RIP Clint Eastwood. Sad News For Clint Eastwood Family. Goodbye Clint Eastwood." Such posts came from poorly named fake websites like "freshnews85.com" and got scuttled onto Facebook via users named things like "da ra14." At the same time, a bunch of videos about Eastwood's supposed death appeared on YouTube staggered one after the other. Some headlines mirrored the Facebook posts and read things like, "10 Minutes Ago / Sad News / RIP Clint Eastwood / Goodbye Clint Eastwood." Others deployed broken grammar, saying, "It's With Heavy Hearted We Share Sad News About Clint Eastwood As He Confirmed To Be ..." Fake pictures show an emaciated and bald Eastwood crumbled in a hospital bed, or a white casket supposedly carrying his body.

And yes, this was all meant to provoke a split-second click response in readers. After clicking, they were prompted to install Adobe Flash Player, which was discontinued in 2020, and led down a deep malware hole.

While there may yet be more Clint Eastwood death hoaxes to follow — he seems to be a favorite of bored and/or pathetic scammers — his most recent death hoax came on October 13, 2023. Once again, Snopes stepped in to the rescue to debunk the whole thing.

The newest hoax grabbed attention on YouTube via the channel Military News. The headline stiltedly read (and see if you can spot the pattern), "5 Minutes Ago / Clint Eastwood Died on the way to the hospital / Goodbye Clint Eastwood." Snopes reported that the video had 117,000 views by the time it'd posted its article. And yes, the video came equipped with multiple associated Facebook posts. Once again banking on people's click-happy fingers, Military News had also reported fake deaths about Randy Travis and Denzel Washington over the two preceding days.

This time, it seemed like the public was sick of the whole Eastwood death hoax schtick. An article on Mediamass from the time (somewhat mockingly) wrote, "Some fans have expressed anger at the fake report saying it was reckless, distressing and hurtful to fans of the much loved actor." A poll from The Post Celebrity dated a year later in October 2024, said that 91% of respondents no longer found the death hoaxes funny, but "stupid and boring." Now we just have to stop hoaxers from posting content and also stop gullible fans from clicking.