Reports that 1883 star Sam Elliott died last week are not true. A death hoax is actually overshadowing another event in the actor’s life.
Thursday (Aug. 9) is Elliott’s birthday. The screen veteran turns 79 years old, and while it’s not clear how or if he’s celebrating, he is capable of celebrating. Snopes flushed out the truth from a very complicated web of lies on the internet.
A YouTube channel called 640.000N Views is partly to blame for the bad information. Their video about Sam Elliott dying is one of many fake reports. Within the last week, their videos have attempted to trick people into thinking a variety of celebs have died, including Gayle King, Jack Black, Brett Favre and Amy Poehler.
There’s no reason to believe any of those four have died beyond this “reporting.” Another YouTube channel called Celeb Breaking News also indicated Elliott died. They also make up celebrity deaths on the regular. For example, in the last year they’ve shared four videos stating Toby Keith died. He hasn’t.
Social media users spread the gossip quickly, to the point that sites that typically amplify death hoaxes found it smart to squash this one. Snopes — an online conspiracy theory truth-teller — points to a satirical website called Mediamass as an offender here, although U.K. tabloid the Sun also got involved.
TL;DR version of this story: Sam Elliott is not dead, though he is not active on social media.
Elliott’s most recent project was as the cantankerous Shea Brennan in Yellowstone prequel 1883. He also stared in the Netflix show The Ranch.
