Twitter Tries (and Fails) to Kill Off Eddie Murphy

False reports of the comedian's premature death continues to spread like wildfire on the microblogging site

By Josh Grossberg Mar 21, 2012 3:16 PMTags
Eddie MurphyJim Spellman/WireImage.com

Fortunately, rumors of Eddie Murphy's death have been greatly exaggerated.

The Hollywood star has once again fallen victim to the dreaded Twitter death hoax, after word has been trending that he died in a snowboarding accident in Zermatt, Switzerland.

Hmm…sound familiar?

It should, as the exact same fate was falsely reported to have befallen him in December 2010.

Thankfully, however, Murphy is alive and doing just fine.

You'd think by now people would be a little more skeptical every time they hear about an actor meeting a grim end via snowboarding mishap or, say, falling off a cliff in New Zealand. That's because such claims are routinely found to have been sourced to a fake news story by Global Associated News, a website enabling people to create their very own celebrity death headline.

Maybe whoever generated this latest prank was really mourning the death of Eddie's once-stellar career in the wake of awful reviews for his latest flick, A Thousand Words.

Either way, Murphy is part of an exclusive club of celebs who've read about their own demise on Twitter including Owen Wilson, Reba McEntire, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and, most recently, Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean fame.