Fact Check

Sinbad Death Hoax

Did comedian Sinbad die of a heart attack?

Published March 15, 2007

Claim:

Claim:   Comedian/actor Sinbad died of a heart attack in March 2007.


Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, March 2007]




Did Sinbad die yesterday? I would have thought it would have figured prominently in the news?

Sinbad (actor)

Sinbad

Sinbad speaks with Zama American High School students in Sagamihara, Japan

Birth name
David Adkins

Born
November 10, 1956
Benton Harbor, Michigan, United States

Died
March 14, 2007 (aged 50)



Origins:   Despite rumors that comedian/actor Sinbad (the stage name of David Adkins) died in March 2007, the 50-year-old entertainer is alive and well. The misinformation that he passed away from a heart attack was merely part of a prank spread through a phony on-line biographic entry.

An Associated Press reporter contacted Sinbad on 15 March 2007 and wrote:



Actor-comedian Sinbad had the last laugh after a Florida-based Internet reference site announced he was

dead.

Sinbad first got a telephone call from his daughter. The gossip quieted, but a few days later the 50-year-old entertainer said the phone calls, text messages and e-mails started pouring in by the hundreds.

"I rose from the dead and then died again," the Los Angeles-based entertainer told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

When asked if he was upset about the mix-up, Sinbad, whose real name is David Adkins, just laughed.

"It's gonna be more commonplace as the Internet opens up more and more. It's not that strange," he replied.

"Sinbad is in great health, his crazy self, nothing's changed," his publicist Maria Savoy said.


EURweb.com has an article that reproduces a phone call with Sinbad's brother/manager, Mark Adkins, confirming the comedian's not-deadness.

Last updated:   15 March 2007





  Sources Sources:

    Kennedy, Kelli   "Internet Sites Spreads False Rumor of Sinbad's Death."

    Bradenton Herald.   15 March 2007.


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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