Estates of Dead Celebrities Rake in Big Bucks

According to Lacey Rose, Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, Forbes.com (Oct. 24, 2006),

A nail in the casket is hardly the end for some stars. Instead, their work, as well as their iconic images, continues to appeal to fans who remember them, and to those born long after they died.

The 13 icons on our sixth annual Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list collectively earned $247 million in the last 12 months. Their estates continue to make money by inking deals involving both their work and the rights to use their name and likenesses on merchandise and marketing campaigns. To land on this year’s list, a star needed to make at least $7 million between October 2005 and October 2006.

Here is the list:

1. Kurt Cobain
2. Elvis Presley
3. Charles M. Schulz
4. John Lennon
5. Albert Einstein
6. Andy Warhol
7. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
8. Ray Charles
9. Marilyn Monroe
10. Johnny Cash
11. J.R.R. Tolkien
12. George Harrison
13. Bob Marley

Special thanks to Robert G. Nassau, Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic Office of Clinical Legal Education at the Syracuse University College of Law, for bringing this article to my attention.