Ron Palillo, Horshack of ‘Welcome Back, Kotter,’ did not die Friday

No, Ron Palillo, who played Arnold Horshack on “Welcome Back, Kotter,” did not die — again — Friday despite social media being flooded with rest-in-peace messages.

Palillo died two years ago.

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FOR THE RECORD: Even we got a little confused; a previous version of this post incorrectly said Palillo died Aug. 15, 2012. He died Aug. 14, 2012.

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The whole phenomenon seemed pretty confusing; perhaps someone got confused because the actor did die suddenly on Aug. 14, but in 2012.

Some tweets claiming the news just happened had news articles attached. The articles had correct 2012 dates.

Here are some examples of people upset about the news:

“OH NO!!!! Horshack too?????? Ooh Ooh Oooh!! Mr. Kotter!,” tweeted Eddie Napolillo.

“Awww, is he the third to complete the trio? RT ‘@PellaPusher: Aw, Horshack. Sad again. RIP, Ron Palillo. Thanks for the giggles’.” tweeted Cindy Stephens, who later realized the mistake and sent out an “Ooooops.”

“RIP Ron Palillo, aka Horshack, dead of a heart attack eary this morning at age 63. A classic TV character, that laugh will live forever,” tweeted Gary Collard.

Even CNN anchor Jake Tapper seemed to believe Palillo had died, tweeting “RIP Horshack” with a link to an old story.

Tapper has since deleted the tweet and corrected himself.

“For the record Palillo died in 2012. I was just alerted to it this evening by @evanasmith,” Tapper tweeted.

After he realized his mistake, Evan Smith, editor of the Texas Tribune, sent out a mea culpa: “.@AlanPeppard Apparently it was a sad day in 2012. Slightly distracted by, you know, other news”

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