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Andy Kaufman: Kaufman's death, rebirth and legacy
Kaufman apparently died on May 16, 1984 of lung cancer and was allegedly interred in the Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, New York (Long Island). Over the years, many people doubted Kaufman's death, thinking that he staged it as the ultimate Andy Kaufman stunt. Kaufman himself even said that were he to fake his death, he would return 20 years later, on May 16, 2004, a claim which has become urban legend.
Since the passing of this date, there have been unsubstantiated reports claiming that Kaufman is back from the dead and has
a blog apparently chronicling his comeback. However, these claims are highly questionable and are even self-contradictory in places (on the blog he contradicts the, now suspended, press release which he apparently wrote and paid for himself). Potentially dozens of fake Kaufmans were expected to appear around this time and this appears to be another example of urban legends inspiring real events.
Another partly facetious theory making the rounds on the Internet is that Kaufman got plastic surgery to dramatically alter his appearance and is a current-day comedian or celebrity. Usually the celebrity mentioned is
Jim Carrey, who starred in Man on the Moon, the 1999 film about Kaufman's life that was directed by Milos Forman. Carrey is a long-time fan of Kaufman's and fought hard for the role, and even owns Kaufman's conga drums. (Also interestingly, he and Kaufman share the same birthday: January 17th.) Additionally, Carrey's acting was considered uncannily close to the way Kaufman was normally, even according to Kaufman's friend Bob Zmuda. (Incidentally, Zmuda was in Batman Forever
, which co-starred Carrey.) To "support" this theory, parallels are often drawn from Kaufman's life to Carrey's movies, which include The Majestic
, in which Carrey plays a man who loses his memory and lives another person's life, and Me, Myself, and Irene, in which Carrey plays the white father of three African-American males. However, even if one were to discount Carrey's childhood as a fabrication, he first emerged as an actor in 1983, which is a year too early. More likely is that Carrey's sense of humor was influenced by and is similar to Kaufman's.
The rock band R.E.M. wrote and recorded a song about Kaufman, "Man on the Moon", for their 1992 album Automatic for the People. The song was also used as the title track for the film of the same name.
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