Robert Redford confirms he isn't dead after 'sick' hoax rumours

'This is a sick hoax. I just spoke to him'

Robert Redford (Getty)

Robert Redford is alive and well, his publicist has said, calling reports on Twitter that the "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" actor had died "a sick hoax."

Twitter briefly erupted with RIP tributes after a tweet purporting to come from Britain's Sky News said the 79-year-old actor had died after falling off a golf buggy in the Southern California beach city of Santa Monica.

The fake news feed where the post appeared, Sky Breaking News, in the past has spread other celebrity death reports that proved untrue.

"This is a sick hoax. I just spoke to him and there is no truth to this whatsoever," Robert Redford's publicist, Cindi Berger, said. She said the actor was at home and fine.

In the roughly 15 minutes in which the hoax report spread like wildfire on Twitter, posters tweeted their sadness, calling Redford an icon, a "looker in his day" and a "proper star."

There was no comment from Redford himself, who is not on Twitter or Instagram.

Reuters