Has actor Will Smith died as of March 25, 2025? No, that's not true: Smith appeared alive in Philadelphia to celebrate the naming of a street in his childhood neighborhood "Will Smith Way" on March 26, 2025. A social media post on a Facebook group page created just a day earlier included a photo from an unrelated 2022 car crash as the only evidence of the star's death.
The claim originated in a post (archived here) shared on a Facebook group page on March 25, 2025. It included a montage of two photos of Smith and the car crash image under a caption that read:
R.I.P. Will Smith Hollywood Legend Has Passed Away, Goodbye and Rest......
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Sat Mar 29 19:23:31 2025 UTC)
The photo of the wreck car suggests it was a trafffic accident that killed Smith. The image is a reversed version of this photo released by the San Francisco Fire Department on November 10, 2022.
(Source: The San Francisco Fire Department)
An online news report said the Tesla crashed into a Toyota Prius and then a building in San Francisco, seriously injuring three people. There was no report of a death.
A Google search of "Will Smith" found no news reports of his death, but plenty of reports of him promoting a new album and also appearing in Philadelphia on March 26, 2025, to celebrate the renaming of 59th Avenue "Will Smith Way."
Smith posted photos of his visit to the city on his official Instagram page on March 27, 2025.
