Is Andy Kaufman Really Dead? Did the ultimate prankster play the ultimate prank? by Ed Aerox There's been speculation, ever since May 16, 1984, the day that Andy Kaufman died of a rare form of lung cancer, that maybe...just possibly...he didn't really die.
Anyone even slightly familiar with Andy's antics knows why. Kaufman is in a class by his self when it comes to pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. Tony Clifton, the Jerry Lawler incident - it all seemed so real. So who could put it past him to perform the ultimate prank on the world?
Since the release of the bio film 'Man On The Moon', starring Jim Carey, talk of a faked death has been renewed with intense ferver. This could be partly due to the ambiguous ending - which shows Tony Clifton performing at a comedy club a year after Andy's death.
The evidence is compelling, to say the least. Amazingly, Andy actually talked about faking his own death. A review for one of his shows called him a "freak act", stating that he should bite the heads of chickens and kill himself on stage.
Bob Zmuda, Andy's good friend and co-writer, said of Andy's reaction to the review, "He said to me, 'This guy is brilliant. That's what I should do'." Zmuda told Kaufman he wanted nothing to do with it, not wanting to have to face Andy's family at the funeral and deal with possible legal consequences, as faking death and forging a death certificate is quite illegal.
But according to those close to him, Andy talked about it all the time. It was his ultimate prank. He even talked about it with with his girlfriend Lynne Margulies, played by Courtney Love in 'Man On The Moon'. "We had decided on ten years, and it's been fifteen years now," says Marguilies of their discussion on how long he should stay 'dead'. "But he would make it fifteen just to fool me."
However, Andy's manager George Shapiro has said that once John Belushi died, Kaufman relaxed on the death-faking idea, joking that Belushi stole his bit. But isn't that just like Andy - to pretend that he wasn't going to do it any more?!
The most compelling evidence comes in the form of a movie script Andy was writing 8 years before his death. It was called 'The Tony Clifton Story'. Bob Zmuda states that on page 112 of the script, Clifton dies of lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Hospital - exactly what happened to Kaufman!
Is the movie death of Clifton and Kaufman's 'real' death too much of a coincidence? A lot of fans think so. Debates rage on in alt.fan.andy-kaufman, a newsgroup devoted to the man who gave us Latka. However, according to Zmuda, who was in on many of Kaufman's antics and probably knew him better than anyone, Andy really is gone. "I'm going on record, Andy is dead," Zmuda says. "But if he had lived, he would have faked his own death." Andy, if you're out there and still performing your grand illusion - Tank you veddy much.