{"id":15259,"date":"2023-06-26T10:22:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T09:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=15259"},"modified":"2023-06-26T10:22:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T09:22:34","slug":"hoax-popular-actor-van-damme-is-not-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/hoax-popular-actor-van-damme-is-not-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"HOAX! Popular Actor Van Damme is not dead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: A Facebook user claims that popular Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme has passed after battling a stroke.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: FALSE! The image used to portray the sick Mr Damme was doctored, and there is no news from the family confirming his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Popular Hollywood actor known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme is a martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Mr Damme became a popular action film star with Cyborg in 1989. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Facebook user Ike Precious<\/a>\u00a0 on June 2, 2023, posted a picture<\/a> of a Hollywood actor with the caption, \u201cIt just happened, Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme passed away at his home after a stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Precious posted a picture of the actor with another picture of him supposedly on a hospital bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Mr Damme reportedly<\/a> suffered a minor heart attack while shooting his latest film, Warrior, a day after his 50th birthday but fully recovered later. After the attack, Mr Damme has been in other movies and TV shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post had gotten different reactions, from people believing it was fake and others believing it to be true. Adeleke Bolanle<\/a> used the exclamation symbol with \u201cR.I.P.\u201d Another user Onika Straker<\/a> expressed his displeasure saying, \u201cIt is a lie. Stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim because of the personality involved, the virality of the post, and the effect it has had on fans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To verify this claim, we ran an advanced keyword search and discovered that the post was also in circulation on YouTube, but it did not state an actual source for the claim. We then<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 used TinEye reverse image search, which redirected us to Alamy, a site with stock photos and 360\u00b0 panoramic images. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found out that the image used to portray the Hollywood actor was doctored, and the original one<\/a> was a stock picture with an old man receiving treatment with the caption \u201cUnrecognizable doctor caring of a sick patient in resuscitation at nighttime, saving the life of a senior man lying on bed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then used Google Lens and discovered that the original one had been doctored a few times with pictures of other celebrities that were hoaxed to be dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A YouTube page<\/a> known as deceased celebrities TV was found to be dedicated to this act. The page also used the picture to portray the death of Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell, amongst others.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A link<\/a> was also attached to the post on Facebook, but it links to betting sites, porn sites and VPN sites, which suggests the post was used as clickbait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also compared the image posted on the claim with Mr Van Dammes\u2019 picture and found out that while the one used had a tattoo on his left arm, his original picture posted on his Instagram page had no tattoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A comparison of both pictures.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In June 2019, it was also rumoured that the actor had died, but he himself posted a video<\/a> debunking the claim, confirming he is \u201calive and well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We went through the Instagram<\/a> and Facebook<\/a> pages of the Actor (@Jean-Caude Van Dames) and found nothing. There is no news about his death on any credible media outlet, and his family and friends have not made similar announcements. The actor also posted a picture on Facebook<\/a> on June 21, 2023, several days after the rumour was shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hollywood actor Van Damme is not dead. The false news was used to gain traction on other websites. The families and management of Mr Damme have also not come out to share any news about his death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: A Facebook user claims that popular Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme has passed after battling a stroke.\u00a0 Verdict: FALSE! The image used to portray the sick Mr Damme was doctored, and there is no news from the family confirming his death. Full Text  Popular Hollywood actor known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme is a martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Mr Damme became a popular action film star with Cyborg in 1989.  A Facebook user Ike Precious\u00a0 on June 2, 2023, posted a picture of a Hollywood actor with the caption, \u201cIt just happened, Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme passed away at his home after a stroke.\u201d Ms Precious posted a picture of the actor with another picture of him supposedly on a hospital bed.  In 2010, Mr Damme reportedly suffered a minor heart attack while shooting his latest film, Warrior, a day after his 50th birthday but fully recovered later. After the attack, Mr Damme has been in other movies and TV shows.\u00a0 The post had gotten different reactions, from people believing it was fake and others believing it to be true. Adeleke Bolanle used the exclamation symbol with \u201cR.I.P.\u201d Another user Onika Straker expressed his displeasure saying, \u201cIt is a lie. Stop it.\u201d DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim because of the personality involved, the virality of the post, and the effect it has had on fans.  Verification  To verify this claim, we ran an advanced keyword search and discovered that the post was also in circulation on YouTube, but it did not state an actual source for the claim. We then  used TinEye reverse image search, which redirected us to Alamy, a site with stock photos and 360\u00b0 panoramic images.  We found out that the image used to portray the Hollywood actor was doctored, and the original one was a stock picture with an old man receiving treatment with the caption \u201cUnrecognizable doctor caring of a sick patient in resuscitation at nighttime, saving the life of a senior man lying on bed.\u201d We then used Google Lens and discovered that the original one had been doctored a few times with pictures of other celebrities that were hoaxed to be dead.  A YouTube page known as deceased celebrities TV was found to be dedicated to this act. The page also used the picture to portray the death of Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell, amongst others.\u00a0 A link was also attached to the post on Facebook, but it links to betting sites, porn sites and VPN sites, which suggests the post was used as clickbait. We also compared the image posted on the claim with Mr Van Dammes\u2019 picture and found out that while the one used had a tattoo on his left arm, his original picture posted on his Instagram page had no tattoo.  In June 2019, it was also rumoured that the actor had died, but he himself posted a video debunking the claim, confirming he is \u201calive and well.\u201d We went through the Instagram and Facebook pages of the Actor (@Jean-Caude Van Dames) and found nothing. There is no news about his death on any credible media outlet, and his family and friends have not made similar announcements. The actor also posted a picture on Facebook on June 21, 2023, several days after the rumour was shared. Conclusion Hollywood actor Van Damme is not dead. The false news was used to gain traction on other websites. The families and management of Mr Damme have also not come out to share any news about his death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,123],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3793],"class_list":["post-15259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-mainstream"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-3Y7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3793,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lademi-aborisade","display_name":"Lademi Aborisade","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Van-Damme.jpg?fit=1242%2C1257&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15261,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15259\/revisions\/15261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15259"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=15259"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=15259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}