Andy Kaufman Fake Death Rumors- What happened to him? Is He Still Alive

Clique comedy star Andy Kaufman faked his death in 1984, but his brother claimed he is still alive.

Andy Kaufman is known for playing the amateurish Latka Gravas on the 1970s sitcom Taxi. Kaufman’s posthumous reputation has grown in tandem with the rise of a cult that reveres him as a cultural god, the harbinger of our comedy verité sensibility.

American performance artist, comedian, and actor, whose revolutionary and exploratory comedic acts made him one of the most noteworthy comics of all time.

Kaufman grew up enthralled to become a performer, inspired in many ways by his eloquent audience of professional wrestling. While learning television at a junior college in Boston, he was fascinated by children’s parties.

He had a campus TV show entitled Uncle Andy’s Fun House. He returned to New York City and started performing in comedy clubs.

Kaufman became a comedy commotion in New York, which led to his playing on Saturday Night Live in 1975, along with a famous debut as Foreign Man on the show’s first episode that introduced America to his trademark cringe humor.

Andy Kaufman Fake Death Rumors- What happened to him?

There were rumors in the past that Kaufman passed away due to lung Cancer on May 16, 1984, at the age of 35. Although he had large-cell lymphoma of the lung, a disease typically associated with years of smoking cigarettes. Kaufman was a non-smoker. Moreover, he was a health-food fanatic.

The unsought nature of a young, healthy man dying abruptly of a fatal illness, combined with Kaufman’s reputation as a swindler mastermind, led many of his fans and even his loved ones to question the tragedy. 

The famous conspiracy theory about Andy Kaufman’s death is that the comedian planned the whole thing himself as a hoax. This theory was notably pushed in the 2014 book “Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally,” which was written by Kaufman’s ex-girlfriend Lynne Margulies and his script partner Bob Zmuda.

In an interview, Zmuda claimed that Kaufman told him in 1982 an idea to fake his death using a cancer patient’s body.

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Andy Kaufman, the comedic talent, had talked about faking his death and had fooled about his ultimate return. Sightings of Kaufman’s boorish character Tony Clifton were reported at comedy clubs following the comedian’s death in 1984 from a rare form of Cancer at age 35.

Is Andy Kaufman Still Alive?

The Andy Kaufman Is Still Alive death bluff rumor went to another level in the wake of the week Andy Kaufman Awards in New York. These talks have been around since Kaufman died in 1984. Bob Zmuda said Kaufman was engrossed with the idea of faking his death.

However, in the award event, Kaufman’s brother Michael claimed that Kaufman has been living in ambiguity for the past 29 years of his life, raising a family.

According to Defamer and The Comic’s Comic, Michael shared a story about finding his brother’s plans to fake his death after Andy passed on, with a note that he would revert on Christmas Eve in 1999 at his favorite restaurant.

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Michael went to the restaurant, but Andy never appeared; a letter was delivered to him explaining that Andy went into hiding to live a normal life with a wife and daughter. He didn’t want others to reach out to him while the Kaufmans’ Father, Stanley, was still alive.

In 1999, a 24-year-old woman contacted Michael, claiming to be Andy’s daughter. and attended the event. However,  Some argue that the girl was a theater student; some claim they believed her, whereas some believed in the Death Certificate.