The Bizarre Death Hoax Will Ferrell Was Involved In

The year was 2006. At that point in his career, Will Ferrell had established himself as a reliable big-screen comedy actor, though as his IMDb page notes, he was already dipping into dramedy territory with that year's "Stranger Than Fiction." All in all, it seemed like a pretty good year. But as he revealed in a 2008 interview with the Orange County Register, he was shocked when his publicist told him about an online report he had read, claiming that the actor was killed in a paragliding accident. He recalled feeling "creepy" and shaken by the fact that he was just mentioned in a death hoax. "I had to make sure to call my family before they heard anything," Ferrell added. "That was probably the weirdest thing I've ever had to go through in this business."

According to ABC News, the press release claiming Ferrell had died was published on March 14, 2006, by a website called iNewswire, though it was deleted after it had caused some concern in Hollywood circles. The outlet noted that iNewswire's report had multiple factual errors as well; Ferrell's age at the time was misstated as 36 instead of 38, and it was claimed that he graduated from the University of California. (Per Britannica, he's actually a University of Southern California alum — big difference.)

The real kicker here is that Ferrell wasn't even paragliding on or around the time of his supposed death. Speaking to ABC News, Josh Meyers, the president of Airtek Paragliding, said that he had "no knowledge" of Ferrell making use of his company's services, as was claimed in the death hoax.