One of the most enduring pop culture conspiracy theories is that Elvis Presley faked his own death in 1977 so he could be free of public scrutiny. It seems that Elvis didn’t want to give up the limelight completely, though. 13 years later he turned up as an extra in popular Christmas movie Home Alone…
Elvis Presley had several reasons for wanting to fake his own death. He’d just lost $10,000,000 in a property deal that was allegedly connected to the Mafia. Some believe that he gave evidence against the crime syndicate to the government in exchange for safe relocation and a new identity.
Others believe that his declining health, burgeoning weight and increasingly poor musical performances led Elvis to throw in the show business towel. His fans would’ve never let him go (they still haven’t), so ‘dying’ was the easiest route of escape from the public eye.
There are numerous questions that revolve around Elvis’s death on August 16th 1977. These include:
- Those who attended Elvis’s funeral noted that the body in the coffin had discrepancies to his appearance in real life: a differently shaped nose and eyebrows, a stuck-on sideburn that was falling off, and soft, pudgy hands instead the calloused hands he’d gotten from years of martial arts.
- Some believe that the body in the coffin was actually a wax model. Funeral attendants reported that the air around the coffin was unusually cold. This sparked theories that an air conditioning unit had been placed inside to keep the wax replica cool.
- Lucy De Barbon, Elvis’s former lover, received a rose in the mail the day after his death. The attached card was from “El Lancelot”, her pet name for Elvis that she said no one else knew.
- Two hours after the public announcement of Elvis’s death, a man who looked remarkably like him bought a ticket to Buenos Aeries and paid in cash. The man used the name John Burrows, an alias that Elvis had used several times before.
Since 1977, numerous sightings of Elvis have been reported, further cementing the belief that he still walks the Earth. Probably the most unusual sighting is in Home Alone, the 1990 comedy starring Macaulay Culkin (and one of the greatest Christmas movies ever).
Here he is during the airport scene. When Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) is pleading with airport staff to get her on a plane back to Chicago and her eight-year-old son, Elvis is the bearded gentlemen stood about a metre behind her…
Is that really Elvis? Did he really pop up in a Hollywood movie 13 years after his ‘death’ to – what – tease his fans? Some argue that the resemblance between Elvis and the extra is Home Alone is so striking that it must be him. Some have said it’s just a lookalike. Elvis would’ve been 55 years old at the time Home Alone was filmed; I think this guy could easily be 55. Still, there are loads of people in this world who closely resemble other people. It’s just one of those things.
I suppose it all comes down to one question. If Elvis made a concerted effort in 1977 to escape public life and potential assassination by the Mafia, would he really have risked all that for a silent, one minute cameo as an extra in Home Alone?
Next week: From one celebrity who’s dead but might be alive, to another celebrity who’s alive but might be dead…
C.R. Berry 
The extra in that film definitely has a very convincing resemblance to Elvis apart from the nose which can be seen clearer when the extra is pictured from a different angle of that screenshot and the extra does look like a well preserved 55 year old, which is how you would expect Elvis would have aged, rather like how Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Johnny Depp, all in their fifties, have aged well today. However perhaps this is a prosthetic nose, as Elvis’s own nose could be too much of a giveaway, especially if we are to believe the ‘hiding’ from the mafia theory. There is another thing that is so uncanny and this is the head movement that the extra makes during the scene, it’s the same movement that Elvis always made as can be seen in various other footage of him when he was ‘alive’. It’s interesting to note that nothing has surfaced online to rebuke the allegations that it is Elvis, for example that someone else has come forward to say that they were the extra in that film! Wonder why!
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I have recently made contact with a Jon Burrows, not a John Burrows as read above, we have spoken little words through social media, I believe this man could be Elvis, he has very few friends, on one of his social media accounts three of his friends are Larry Geller, Linda Thompson and Ann Margaret who i might add don’t except friend requests, these people obviously knew Elvis, so why are they on this Jon Burrows page along with photo’s of E that ive never seen and ive seen a lot, this person has never claimed to be Elvis and unfortunately he’s a Trump supporter, but I guess he got fooled by tom parker so why not trump, but he is very patriotic as was Elvis, whether this is Elvis or not I really don’t know, but the last message he sent me was a badge with TCB on it and he’s broken contact with me since then but he hasn’t blocked me so i hope I will find out the truth, wouldn’t it be crazy if he really were still alive
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fooled by Trump? so you’re just another libtard,,,nuff said
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Just had a look at ‘Jon burrows’ on Facebook he states he’s started working at RCA records the same label Elvis was signed too. Just a coincidence I don’t know
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Sorry I knew this extra and still friends with his ex. We laughed about this. This is Gary Grott. Unfortunately he passed away recently.
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You are wrong, stop spreading this stupid propaganda. You are a disgusting excuse for a person.
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Hey Iachlan – what’s the need to go on the attack like that? We’re all having a nice discussion. Not even sure who your comment is aimed at, but no one is “spreading propaganda”. We’re talking about an urban legend. And I’m afraid you and your small-minded insults aren’t going to stop us.
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Thank you for that Kathryn Rydz, I have had a rethink since I wrote my last comment and I no longer believe this extra is really an alive Elvis! You speak of trust? Well,what am i supposed to think? dismissing he is not still alive, but of course of that I don’t really know, only that this is proof enough for me that the theory about the extra is wrong!
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I have no idea where some of the text in my comment dated August 15tg 2016 came from, the bit about “you speak of trust?” and the bit about “what am I supposed to think?” No idea where that came from, I certainly didn’t write that!
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Spooky!!! 😉
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John Candy was 6ft 2in. Elvis was 6ft. Standing side by side in the scene on Home Alone, the extra is slightly taller than John Candy.
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Anyway,even if it was the real Elvis,he’d be well & truly dead by now! Not many men make it past 80 years and John Candy(a Canadian by birth) is also now dead and that Culkin kid, I heard he’s supposed to have ‘died’ as well,from years of drug abuse.And John Candy & Elvis Presley, were both big boys, in their day.
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I believe with all my heart he did fake his death ,but not sure if he is still alive presently .I hope he is tho 🙂
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I believe that E.P. did fake his
death to protect his family. And protection from the death
threats.
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Yes Elvis is still on this earth physically and he is fine and is grateful for keeping his anonymity .
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