Authentic video of the veterinarian Henry Whitaker in World War II, who sings about 'America's Got Talent'?

A rumor that was distributed online in May 2025 claimed that a video authentically showed a 95-year-old veteran of World War II in the Second World War called Henry Whitaker, who for his fallen friend Thomas in the reality competition exhibition “America's Got Talent”, also known as “AGT”, for his fallen friend Thomas Sang.

Searches by Bing, Duckduckgo, Google and Yahoo did not find any credible news media that reported on a veteran of the Second World War that recently appeared on the show. A representative of Fremantle, the company that makes “AGT”, confirmed by e -mail that the video did not represent a real candidate and that the Creator of the Clips used AI.

This video and other “AGT” singing clips, such as a documentation of the history of a 54-year-old man named Ernesto, contained fake content. The manufacturer of these videos invented heartbreaking and heartwarming stories and edited the clips with a mixture of real film material from the audience and judges of the show with fake clips, which they created with tools for artificial intelligence. Liability exclusions were shown in the text descriptions under the videos, in which the fictional and with ai-generated content of the clips were found.

Apart from the unauthentic performance, the search for authentic participants in the Second World War who corresponds to the name “Henry Whitakers”, died veterans named Henry Page Whitaker, Henry Russeker, Henry Whitaker and John Henry Whitaker, perhaps. In addition, there was a search for “AGT” verbigers with real veterans of the Second World War a story from 2016 about a man named Jimmy Kimmerly Sr., the died in 2024.

Veteran of the Second World War Henry Whitaker on 'Agt'?

On May 8, 2025, the AGTVERSE YouTube channel (archived) published a video (archived) entitled “Emotional Story leaves America's Got Talent in tears: a veteran song of the Second World War for its fallen friend.” At the time of this letter, the clip had more than 358,000 views and received comments from users, the information that the fake video really contained a 95-year-old veteran of the Second World War on the show.

The clip not only showed that a man with AI-generated man named Henry Whitaker spoke and sinks, but some of the mathematics on which the claims of the video are not based. For example, if Whitaker was 95 years old in 2025, his age in 1944 calculated to around 14 – four years younger than the age of 18. The text in the miniature picture of the clip also says Whitaker devoted the performance to a friend who was identified in the description of the video as Thomas who died on the battlefield “76 years ago”. This calculated in 1949 – four years after the end of the war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhxn9wvhqq4

The text description under the video was:

At the age of 95, the veteran Henry Whitaker from World War II does not take the America's Got Talent stage – not to take part in competitions, but to keep a promise.

In 1944 Henry and his best friend Thomas sang through the war with nothing but guitars, rifles and hope. But days before Christmas, Thomas was taken over by a sniper – and Henry never sang again.

Now, decades later, he finally opens the guitar case one last time … and sings the song you never finished.

This is a homage. Kept a promise. A song for a fallen brother.

The same description that was expanded after clicking on “More” contained a disclaimer as follows:

This video contains content created with artificial intelligence (AI). All images, voices and scenarios shown are completely fictional and created with the help of AI tools. This is not a real film material and it is only intended for entertainment, creative or illustrative purposes. Please do not take the content as factual or representative of real events or people.

The Creator of the Agtvers Channel also uploaded a YouTube -Short video of the same clip, which received more than 263,000 views. A TIKTOK user has released the original YouTube video in two (archived) parts (archived) and receives a total of more than 2.3 million views.

Snopes contacted an axis versic -youtube channel manager by e -mail to ask if they are of the opinion Bots or paid commentatorsAnd if they found that people supposedly believe the content surprisingly. We will update this story when we learn more.

The invented story of Ernesto on “AGT”

Four days before uploading the video via the alleged veterans of the Second World War, a manager of the Agtvers YouTube channel published a video (archived) on May 4th about a man named Ernesto entitled “Shocking History leaves America's Got Talent in tears: A father's song for the family that left him.” The clip received almost 4 million views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9dfe0u7o4y

The text description under the video was:

A 54-year-old man steps on the Got talent stage of America's not to follow fame, but to sing a last song for his wife and son who left him behind. Ernesto, once a hardworking carpenter and devoted father, sacrificed everything to give his family a better life. But when they disappeared without saying goodbye, everything he had left was his voice – and hope. Watch how his raw performance and heartbreaking history silence the entire theater … and tears.

This is more than an audition. This is the voice of a broken father.

The description also contained the same disclaimer as the other video about fictional and with AI-generated content.

A manager for the AGTVERSE channel uploaded two YouTube shorts of the clip, which received more than 6 million views in total. Irrespective of this, the TikTok user, who shared the two clips of the Henry Whitaker videos, has released the Ernesto video in two (archived) parts (archived) and collected a total of additional views.

For further reading on the topic of the Second World War, an earlier article examined the story of a striking photo that shows a woman in 1944, who supposedly wrote a letter of thanks in receiving the signed skull of a Japanese soldier.