Many Dead Celebrities Still Earn Huge Sums of Money

Many celebrities still earn huge amounts of money after they have died. According to ‘The Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2023’ by Forbes, the eight highest-paid deceased celebrities earned a combined total of $412 million in the past year.

As the following chart shows, at $115 million, Michael Jackson earned the most posthumously of any celebrity in 2023. Jackson died in 2009 in Los Angeles, California, aged 50, of a cardiac arrest due to a combination of sedatives and an anesthetic, with the coroner’s report finding it to be a homicide. His large wealth is partly due to the Broadway musical ‘MJ: The Musical’, which brought in $85 million in the past 12 months.

Elvis Presley is the second biggest earner on the list. He died in 1977 from a heart attack, aged 42, and last year earned $100 million. In third place comes Ray Manzarek, the former keyboard player of the rock band Doors, who died from cancer in 2013, aged 74, and last year earned $45 million.

Other big names to be included on the list are Whitney Houston, who would have turned 60 this year. Houston died in 2012, aged 48, from an accidental drowning in a hotel bathtub. She earned $30 million in 2023. Prince, who died in 2016, aged 57, and Charles M.Schulz, who created the comic strip Peanuts (starring Snoopy), and died in 2000, aged 77, both also earned $30 million in the past year.