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'Does someone have to DIE to trend...Geez!': Seinfeld star Wayne Knight takes to Twitter to refute death hoax rumors

PUBLISHED: 14:55 EST, 16 March 2014 | UPDATED: 15:16 EST, 17 March 2014

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Does someone have to die to trend? Wayne Knight debunked his death hoax with some funny tweets

Fans were temporarily devastated on Sunday after a rumour ignited on Twitter that Seinfeld favourite Wayne Knight was dead.

However, the 58-year-old funnyman took to Twitter to refute the death hoax, which claimed he died in a car crash, and even poked fun at the fact that he was trending on the social networking site only due to his alleged death.

He wrote: 'Some of you will be glad to hear this, others strangely disappointed, but….I am alive and well!

'Does someone have to DIE to trend? Geez! Thanks for all the love everybody. I didn’t know you cared. Glad to be breathing!'

The erroneous report appears to have come from a website called TMZ.today, which models itself on but is not affiliated with TMZ.com.

An article on the site read: 'Actor Wayne Knight, better known to most for playing one of the most indelible roles on NBC's 'Seinfeld' as the character 'Newman' is dead and two other passengers are critically injured after their vehicle slammed into a disabled semi-tractor-trailer late Saturday night along Route 446 near the Pennsylvania-New York state border in Eldred Township.'

The elaborate but ultimately fake hoax contained details of fictitious crash that included its location, the names of drivers, the hospitals and police agencies involved.

Devastated fans soon took to Twitter to share their sorrow before Wayne quickly set the story straight.

He is not the only star to be the victim of such a hoax with celebrities including Usher, Charlie Sheen and Brad Pitt all being forced to deny they had met an early demise at one stage or another.

In 2012, Usher, 35, tweeted a sweaty, shirtless photograph of himself today after internet hoax rumours surfaced that he had died in a car crash.

He wrote on his Twitter page: 'I must've died and went to heaven...Alive and cold kickin a**!!'
Usher added: 'Never scared, never dead...Just #Lookin 4 myself. Livin legend!'

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Glad to be breathing: Wayne Knight took to Twitter on Sunday to refute claims he had died in a car accident the day before

And the same year, it was claimed Brad Pitt, 50, had crashed into a tree and died while snowboarding in Zermatt, Switzerland.

The Legends Of The Fall star joined a long line of other celebrities, including Charlie Sheen, Christian Slater and Adam Sandler, who have also suffered the same hoax fate.

Brad's alleged demise was pretty much identical to 48-year-old Charlie Sheen's fake death in 2010.
In 2010, Anger Management star Charlie was falsely reported to have met the same fate as Brad, dying after crashing into a tree while snowboarding.

Memorable role: Wayne played Newman on Seinfeld for many years and became a firm fan favourite

In 2011, Christian Slater, 44, was also forced to deny he had been killed in a freak snowboarding accident in Switzerland when the false rumours started spreading round blogs.

Towards the end of 2010 the pranks seemed to be coming at an almost daily rate with dozens of victims, including Eddie Murphy, 52, and Adam Sandler, 47.

Sandler was said to have died in snowboarding accident on December 29 in 2010 until he reassured fans he was fine.

Alive and kicking: In 2012, Usher, 35, tweeted a sweaty, shirtless photograph of himself today after internet hoax rumours surfaced that he had died in a car crash

Singer Aretha Franklin became a victim of the hoax the day before when it was claimed she had passed away.

The now 71-year-old had in fact been recovering from surgery but was otherwise unharmed.
Comedy legend Bill Cosby, 76, was rumoured to have died on August 1 2010, until he Tweeted that he was alive and kicking.

Lindsay Lohan, 27, has been a serial victim of Internet pranksters, but her last ‘death’ took place on July 13 2010 due to an overdose.

False reports: Both Brad Pitt and Charlie Sheen were reported to have died in snowboarding accidents a year apart in internet death hoaxes

Despite her ongoing battles the Mean Girls star is still alive.

Others who have been declared dead on the Internet only to be alive and well in real life are: Justin Bieber, 20, Britney Spears, 32, and Taylor Swift, 24.

Miley Cyrus, 21, has 'died' several times since 2007, each account getting more and more unrealistic.