Flashermac Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Elvis still tops dead celebrities, Shakespeare hot October 28, 2005 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Elvis is still the king when it comes to earning royalties, according to Forbes magazine, but Shakespeare could have given him a run for the money. Forbes' annual list of Ten-Top Earning Dead Celebrities issued on Thursday showed Elvis Presley was top earner for the fifth straight year, generating US$45 million for his estate. Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz held his customary spot at No. 2, with $35 million. Presley died in 1977 and his music is still going strong, but he has a long way to go to outlast Shakespeare, still on theatre marquees nearly 400 years after his death. The magazine calculated what the Bard's heirs might collect each year if he were under copyright and estimated it at $15 million with over 5,000 performances of his plays and hundreds of thousands of books sold in the last year. That would put him behind fellow Englishman and former Beatle John Lennon (No. 3 at $22 million) and America artist Andy Warhol (No. 4, $16 million) and well ahead of dead heavyweights such as Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe. This year's list also showed the big impact of Hollywood as Johnny Cash and Ray Charles broke into the top rankings as the release or planned release of film biographies boosted their royalty statements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted October 28, 2005 Report Share Posted October 28, 2005 Wow..interesting....who is getting his cash?....Daughter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2005 Didn't Michael Jackson buy up a lot of Elvis's songs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PedroH Posted October 30, 2005 Report Share Posted October 30, 2005 Benny Hill's millions that went to distant relatives in Australia that never met him. Same with Marilyn Monroe -- distant relatives that never actually met her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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