Various notable people have had an obituary published in error before their death:

• Bob Hope: had two premature obituaries - one in 1998 inadverdently issued by Associated Press and then announced in the US House of Representatives, and another when several famous figures had pre-written obituaries published on CNN's web site due to a lapse in password protection
• Larry Kramer, when his deterioration after an operation was misinterpreted by Internet journalists
• Alfred Nobel: the erroneous publication in 1888 of a newspaper obituary condemning his invention of dynamite is said to have prompted his founding of the Nobel Prize in order to improve his posthumous legacy
• The Queen Mother's death was erroneously announced in the Australian media in 1993 after a Sky TV internal rehearsal for her death was misinterpreted by a London-based employee
• John Stonehouse MP, following his faked suicide
• Dave Swarbrick: published in the Daily Telegraph in April 1999, prompting the remark "It's not the first time I have died in Coventry"
• Mark Twain: published in the New York Journal, prompting his famous comment "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"