Elizabeth Taylor tops Forbes richest dead celebrity list

PanARMENIAN.Net - Elizabeth Taylor topped Michael Jackson as the highest-earning dead celebrity, according to Forbes.

Taylor’s estate led Forbes’ annual list, which was released Wednesday, October 24 by raking in $210 million in the past year.

Jackson, last year’s richest deceased celebrity, came in second with a cool $145 million, followed by Elvis Presley, who earned $55 million.

Taylor passed away in 2011 at 79, and much of her estate’s wealth accumulation in the last year can be attributed to Christie’s auctions of her jewels, clothes, art work and memorabilia.

She also made tens of millions from sales of her perfume White Diamonds and earned a nice chunk of change from her films, in which she had smartly negotiated a 10% ownership stake.

However, Forbes predicts the King of Pop will regain his top spot on the list next year due to revenues from music sales.

Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz and reggae singer Bob Marley round out the top five highest-earning dead celebrities, with $37 million and $17 million respectively.

In compiling the list, Forbes analyzed dead celebrity earnings for a year starting in October 2011. As a whole, the 13 deceased celebrities on the list made a total of $532.5 million.

Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol and James Dean all earned $5 million last year, just missing the last spot on Forbes list, New York Daily News reported.