1. Mark Twain
Mark Twain is the most well known figure to have had his death reported to him, and as an extremely competent and witty writer, he had a pithy response. In 1897 a journalist arrived at Twain's home thinking he was near death, wishing to inquire after Twain's health (when in fact it was Twain's cousin who was deathly ill). As no obituary was every actually published this example doesn't really count, but Twain went on to recount the strange meeting in the New York Journal later in 1897. Famously, he wrote 'The report of my death was an exaggeration', and because history does not accept anything less than the pithiest line, it is often misquoted as 'Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated'. However, Twain would not entirely escape the indignity of having been told he had died, as in 1907 he was travelling by yacht and the people ashore managed to lose sight of the yacht. They immediately assumed that the yacht had sunk and that Twain had obviously drowned (because the most tantalising story is obviously the correct one, and they would be paid well for the story in the papers). In fact the yacht had simply been held up by fog and Twain had simply gotten off the yacht at a different port. Twain went on to read the article announcing his death, and promptly cleared up the mistake by penning a humorous account of his misadventures in the New York Times the following day. Twain would eventually die in 1910.