Accidental publication: release of a pre-written draft obituary, usually on a news web site, as a result of technical or human error.

Premature obituaries may be published for reasons such as the following: People who were presumed (though not categorically declared) to be dead, and joke death reports that were widely believed, are also included. This article lists the recipients of incorrect death reports (not just formal obituaries) from publications, media organisations, official bodies, and widely used information sources but not mere rumours of deaths. Examples include that of inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel, whose premature obituary condemning him as a 'merchant of death' for creating military explosives may have prompted him to create the Nobel Prize black nationalist Marcus Garvey, whose actual death may have been precipitated by reading his own obituary and actor Abe Vigoda, who was the subject of so many death reports and rumours that a website was created to state whether he was alive or dead. Pope John Paul II was the subject of three premature obituaries.Ī premature obituary is an obituary of someone who was still alive at the time of publication. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.