For anyone who regularly logs into Twitter on a daily basis, there's always the innate fear of seeing news that a celebrity or otherwise noteworthy person has died. Sometimes the fear is justified, with Hollywood icons such as Christopher Plummer, Hal Holbrook, Cicely Tyson and more having passed away all within a week of each other. Other times, however, death rumors require some deeper research to gauge their legitimacy, as it went regarding the unproven claims that Last Man Standing star Hector Elizondo was dead. Despite what may have been passed around online, the actor is very much alive.
It's currently unclear exactly what the source was behind the Hector Elizondo death rumors, but the false news was spread to the point where Mayans M.C. star Edward James Olmos shared his condolences in a since-deleted Twitter post. Thankfully, someone working for Elizondo's longtime manager caught wind of what was happening and reached out to Olmos on Twitter to deliver a far more positive update on Elizondo's health. In her words:
Mr. Olmos, I work with Mark Teitelbaum, Hector's manager of 40+ years. Hector is alive and well, and paraphrases Mark Twain - the reports of his death are greatly exaggerated. Please delete so as to not cause confusion!
Not that Edward James Olmos was the only person to see and react to the rumors. A variety of fans shared mournful posts, while others were balanced between sadness and disbelief, without any corroborating news outlets also reporting on Hector Elizondo's condition. A news reporter for Entertainment Weekly also shared an update on the matter after confirming the actor was indeed still alive.
While it isn't easy to pinpoint where this story first originated, it's entirely possible that this story posted on the website MediaMass is at least partly to blame. The outlet claims that a Facebook page designated as "R.I.P. Hector Elizondo" had racked up over one million likes, with the About section of the page erroneously noting that the actor died on February 6. However, even this article itself appears to be deceitful, since MediaMass also features several other stories about actors with R.I.P pages on Facebook, with each article being a carbon copy of the previous one, save for the celebrity's name.
Whatever the cause for the confusion may be, let's be appreciative that Hector Elizondo is still rocking out in the land of the living, and that we'll still be able to watch him on a weekly basis on Last Man Standing, airing on Fox every Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET. Though with that sitcom ending after Season 9, it's also time to start hoping for Elizondo to land his next big TV role, so maybe he can join Edward James Olmos on Mayans M.C. at some point.
Strangely enough, it was only around six months ago or so when the internet became worriedly convinced that Last Man Standing star Tim Allen had died, though that was also proven to not be true in the slightest. Let's all hope that Nancy Travis doesn't have to deal with this kind of mess next.
