This doctored image contains a 2015 photo of Tom Hanks and the ball in the movie 'Cast Away'

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on March 13, 2020 at 06:40
  • 5 min read
  • By AFP Australia

Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.

A photo of Hollywood actor Tom Hanks holding a volleyball has been viewed thousands of times in multiple Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts alongside it shows him in quarantine at a hospital in Australia after contracting the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The posts further claim hospital staff gifted Hanks the ball as a tribute to his character Chuck Noland in the 2000 film 'Cast Away', who "befriends" a volleyball. The claim is false; the image has been doctored using a 2015 photograph of Hanks and a stock photo of a hospital ward; the doctored photo emerged on a satirical website. 

This photo was published on Twitter on March 12. It was been retweeted more than 1,300 times.

The caption states: “Tom Hanks has #Coronavirus He also has a cracking sense of humour. Gold Coast Hospital Staff Roll In A Volleyball To Keep Tom Hanks Company In Quarantine.” 

Hollywood star Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were being treated at the Gold Coast University Hospital after they were diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Australia, AFP reported here on March 12.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post: 

The photo was shared with an identical claim here, here and here on Twitter, here on Facebook, as well as here, here, here and here on Instagram. 

It was also shared in other languages, for instance here and here in Chinese, here in Spanish, and here and here in Portuguese, alongside a similar claim. 

The claim is false; the composite image was created using a 2015 photo of Tom Hanks and a separate one of a hospital ward. 

A reverse image search on Google using the part of the photo that shows Hanks found this video posted on the official Instagram account of ice hockey team New York Rangers on February 6, 2015. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ICYMI at the #NYR game last night Tom Hanks and Wilson were finally reunited! #BFF

A post shared by New York Rangers (@nyrangers) on

 

In the footage, Hanks waves at the camera before receiving a volleyball identical to the ball which Hanks’ character "befriends" and names  Wilson in the 2000 movie Cast Away. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and a keyframe extracted from the New York Rangers video (R):

Subsequent reverse image searches found the original hospital ward photo in this January 31, 2020, BBC report.

The article is headlined: “Australia coronavirus: Evacuees criticise Christmas Island quarantine plan”, credited the photo to EPA, the European Pressphoto Agency. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and the EPA photo (R) with corresponding features circled in red by AFP:

While some online commenters indicated they believed the misleading claim, others pointed out it originated in this satirical article published by the Betoota Advocate. The media company is described as a satirical site in this article published by Australian broadcaster ABC on November 22, 2019.

The misleading claim was also debunked by BuzzFeed News, Mashable and Snopes.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

Contact us

Next article Previous article