List of Premature Obituaries - G

G

• Zsa Zsa Gabor: In early 2011, many websites, including her Wikipedia page, reported the death of Zsa Zsa Gabor. However, it was quickly revealed that she had not actually died, and that that this was a hoax mistaken by several websites as fact.
• S. Gandaruban: this Sri Lankan man living in Singapore faked his own death in 1987 and fled the country to escape creditors after his car rental business collapsed. He then arranged for a fake death certificate stating that he had been shot dead in crossfire. His brother and wife were convicted of their involvement. In 2007, he was charged with conspiring to claim extensive life insurance arising from the fake death.
  
• Marcus Garvey: after suffering a stroke in January 1940 (1940-01), the black nationalist read his obituary in the Chicago Defender which described him as "broke, alone and unpopular". Apparently as a result, Garvey suffered a second stroke and died.
• Gordon Gee: in March 2003 the then- Vanderbilt University president was declared dead by a fake edition of the university's student newspaper The Vanderbilt Hustler, sparking early dismissal from classes, tears, and moments of silence. Gee issued a press release confirming he was still alive. The hoax was perpetrated by staff from a separate student satirical magazine The Slant, whose managing editor would only say: "I have the right to remain silent, and I am exercising my right of silence".
• Ghazali Shafie, then Foreign Minister of Malaysia, was reported by the New York Times to have died in an aeroplane crash in 1982. Ghazali had in fact survived the crash, read his obituaries, and lived until 2010.
• Gabrielle Giffords: A member of the United States House of Representatives, Giffords was one of numerous people shot during a meeting with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011. Giffords sustained a serious gunshot wound to the head, but was not one of the six people immediately killed by the attack. NPR erroneously reported that she had been killed, however, and that report was picked up and circulated by numerous other media outlets, including CNN, Fox News Channel, the New York Times, and Reuters.
• Cookie Gilchrist: Gilchrist, a former fullback in the Canadian Football League and American Football League, was presumed dead by his hospice worker on January 8, 2011 and reported the news to his nephew, Thomas Gilchrist. However, upon laying him down, Cookie was revived. Gilchrist died two days later.
• Jeff Goldblum: On June 25, 2009 — the same day actress Farrah Fawcett and musician Michael Jackson died — actor Jeff Goldblum was reported dead on Australia's Channel Nine news. The report was quickly debunked, and traced back to a hoax website.
• Harry Gordon: in 2000, this Australian businessman faked his own death in a boating accident so his wife could claim a fortune in life insurance, though he claimed it was to evade business and relationship problems. He assumed a new identity and fled to Spain, then to England (where he worked in a potato crisp warehouse), South Africa, and New Zealand. He explained gaps in his past to a new girlfriend by telling her he was on a witness protection programme. He was discovered in 2005 and later jailed when, by extraordinary coincidence, his brother encountered him on a mountain path in New Zealand. Gordon published a book about his exploits, titled How I Faked My Own Death.
• Frank Gorshin (The Riddler from Batman): in 1957, after driving to a screen test for 39 hours without a break to avoid having to fly, the actor fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. A Los Angeles newspaper reported him dead. Gorshin was unconscious for four days, and the role went to another actor. Gorshin died in May 2005.
• Gotye: In July 2012, CNN reported that the Australian indie rock singer committed suicide. The report was disproven by the singer himself, who replied on Twitter that he was in fact, alive.
• Nicephorus Glycas: in 1896, having presumably been declared dead, the Greek Orthodox bishop of Lesbos Island awoke in his coffin after he had been lying in state for two days. He sat up and asked what mourners were staring at.
• Robert Graves: the writer was left for dead in 1916 after receiving life-threatening injuries at the Battle of the Somme. He made a remarkable recovery, and read a report of his death in The Times. Graves died in 1985.
• Ann Green (or Anne Greene), a servant in Oxfordshire, was hanged for allegedly murdering her newborn child in 1650. Having presumably been declared dead, her corpse was taken away for dissection, but she revived. She was ultimately pardoned, and became something of a celebrity.
• Catherine Sophie Greenhill, a British three-year-old who was pronounced dead after falling from an upper storey window onto flagstones in the late 18th century. However, she was revived by a Dr (or Mr) Squires, a member of the recently formed Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned (later the Royal Humane Society) using an early form of defibrillator. After a time in coma she eventually made a full recovery.
• Friedrich Gulda (pianist), who in 1999 faxed the Austrian News Agency claiming he had died of a stroke at Zurich airport. Shortly afterwards he announced he was still alive and would be giving a 'Resurrection Recital', which was accompanied by go-go dancers (he often played pranks to annoy the musical establishment).
• Dominic Guzzetta: in November 2005, the former University of Akron president was reported by the Akron Beacon Journal to have been 'posthumously honored' at a fundraising event. Prior to this, he had joked for years that he reads the obituaries to make sure his name is not among them.
• Roberto Gómez Bolaños: The well-known actor "Chespirito" was reported dead in 2003 by a confused Chilean reporter (Carolina Zúñiga). Actually the dead person was a Chilean writer with a similar name (Roberto Bolaño).