When did he die?

Sometimes it's pretty easy to see how some Mandela Effects begin.

Take the announcement by movie review site Rotten Tomatoes in 2018 proclaiming John Carpenter "would have been 70 years old today." It went on to celebrate his life, in terms written exactly as if he was dead, by '"looking back at his five favorite films".

This came as quite a shock to John, who was vey much alive and well enough to reply in his dry humour style: "despite how it appears, I'm not actually dead."

Many Mandela Effects revolve around the supposed deaths of famous people - just look at how it got it's name, for starters.

The Legend

Carpenter's fame amongst cinema goers, and in particular horror fans, is legendary. His titles include Halloween, They Live, Escape from LA and The Thing to name but a few. He also did his own version of Alfred Hitchcock by appearing in many of his own films, in tiny cameo's you only know about if you knew exactly where to look.

After the mistake was noticed, Rotten Tomatoes immediately took down the tweet and apologised. It was particularly embarrassing for Rotten Tomatoes since they are promoting themselves as the authoritative website on all factual movie matters...

Rotten Tomatoes actually spoke to John about it, since he was not happy at all:

Anthony Alicea for Rotten Tomatoes: First off, I was the one who made that unfortunate tweet. I want to apologize for that.

John Carpenter: Why did you not check and see if I was alive? Did you get me confused with Wes Craven or somebody like that?

Things were resolved amicably and the call actually turned into a regular interview. The usual method of verifying a celebrity this way applies.