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Yves Saint Laurent (August 1, 1936 - June 1, 2008) - Source: Reuters -
Related
Michael Jackson's estate may have just signed the biggest
recording contract in history, but when it comes to making money in
the afterlife, fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent tops the
charts...for now.
Forbes' 2009 list of
top-earning dead celebrities, has the fashion
designer, who
died of brain cancer in June 2008 , at the top of the tree
after grossing $US350 million up to September 2009.
The bulk of those earnings came in a three-day estate sale in
February 2009 which sold off many of the French icon's personal
possessions.
Coming in second on the list was Broadway's legendary duo Richard
Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein with a combined income of $US235
million thanks to catalogue licensing fees.
By September 2009, just four months after his death, Michael
Jackson's estate had earned $US90 million, placing the King of Pop
third on the list.
A huge chunk of that total was made up by the $US60
million Sony paid for the rights to the Jackson tribute movie This
Is It.
Jackson's music also made huge profits with an estimated
nine-million albums sold worldwide in the four months after his
death.
While the King of Pop finished third on Forbes' list, the King of
Rock came in fourth.
Elvis Presley's estate earned $US55 million between October 1, 2008
and October 1, 2009.
A surprise addition to the top five is Hobbit creator; author J R R
Tolkien, whose works earned a healthy $US50 million.
Tolkien, who died in 1973, earned the bulk of the cash after his
estate settled a long-standing lawsuit with New Line Cinema over
the profits for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film
trilogy.
The Forbes top ten top-earning dead celebrities for
2009:
1 Yves Saint Laurent - $US350 million
2 Rodgers & Hammerstein - $US235 million (combined)
3 Michael Jackson - $US90 million
4 Elvis Presley - $US55 million
5 J.R.R. Tolkien - $US50 million
6 Charles Schulz - $US35 million
7 John Lennon - $US15 million
8 Dr. Seuss - $US15 million
9 Albert Einstein - $US10 million
10 Michael Crichton - $US9 million
