By: Russell Aguila
CLAIM: Social media posts claim that Rowan Atkinson is now sick and bedridden.
RATING: FALSE
English actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson has been facing another hoax regarding his current condition.
Several social media posts published a photo of an old man who appeared to resemble Atkinson and is bedridden.
However, there was no evidence that Atkinson was facing any health problems.
According to IMDb, the production of Johnny English 4, starring Atkinson, would proceed. It was set in Malta and the United Kingdom in June 2024.
If Atkinson had been bedridden, a movie in which Atkinson was the main character would not have pushed through.
Atkinson was also photographed last May 8, 2024, during a Thanksgiving and memorial service at Westminster Abbey in London.
The photo of the bedridden Atkinson has been circulating in social media since January.
There is also no official statement from the actor’s camp about his health.
This is not the first time a hoax has been circulating about Atkinson – in 2012, 2016, 2017, and 2018, the actor was falsely reported dead.
It was believed that Atkinson’s popularity was one of the factors why he was always being targeted by death hoaxes, as news about his passing always got large impressions from his fans on social media.
SOURCES:
- https://m.imdb.com/news/ni64434955/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/C7KbSKJyfe3/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1nOunaHPH-B_qh6Z4NH76VGn9H1v6BET2fNZ5Gb_dplnpsIit_Mej-1Jo_aem_LqBAsQHi4Q8r6luB8qmEew&img_index=3
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rowan-atkinson-death-hoax/
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This article is De La Salle University – Dasmariñas’ (DLSU-D) contribution to the Asian Network of News and Information Educators (ANNIE) School Net’s campus fact-checking project of establishing and operating a student-driven fact-checking newsroom on campus. The ANNIE project is supported by a grant from Google News Initiative. GreenFM is DLSU-D’s official media for the ANNIE project.
