For the seventh year in a row, Forbes magazine announced their top-ten (actually, top-thirteen) dead celebrity moneymakers for 2007. Not a lot of surprises here, although I don’t what kind of merchandise Steve McQueen’s estate is shilling these days…but it must be making some serious bread as he cracked the top ten!
Also glad to see a couple of writers/cartoonists and a fine artist in the mix as well…but what gives with only one woman making the top thirteen? Jeez, man…Natalie Wood’s estate needs to get the Fraklin Mint on the horn and start selling some commemorative plates and shit, pronto.
And speaking of selling cheesy stuff, where’s Lucille Ball on this list? You can’t walk through an airport gift store nowadays without seeing tons of “I Love Lucy” crap for sale…hmmm…maybe those greedy old estate lawyers are skimming a little off the top or something.
Either way, here is Forbes’s list of 2007’s top dead celebrity millionaires, accompanied by some rocking Warhol-lite portraits from their website. Enjoy!
13. James Dean – $3.5 Million
12. Bob Marley – $4 Million
11. James Brown – $5 Million
10. Steve McQueen – $6 Million
9. Marilyn Monroe – $7 Million
8. Tupac Shakur – $9 Million
7. Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) – $13 Million
6. Andy Warhol – $15 Million
5. Albert Einstein – $18 Million
4. George Harrison – $22 Million
3. Charles M. Shultz – $35 Million
2. John Lennon – $44 Million
And finally, the number one celebrity wage earner from beyond the grave is…
1. Elvis Presley – $49 Million
make. see. eat. do. 