NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Elizabeth Taylor surpassed Michael Jackson as the
highest-earning dead celebrity in the past year, with her estate pulling
in $210 million, much of it from the auction of her jewels, costumes
and artwork, Forbes said on Wednesday.
Jackson, who died in 2009, dropped into second place with earnings of $145 million, followed by Elvis Presley with $55 million.
In addition to the Taylor
auction, which totaled $184 million, the actress, who passed away in
2011 at the age of 79, also earned $75 million from sales of her top
selling perfume White Diamonds.
"The rest of the money came from property sales and residuals
from Taylor's movies," according to Forbes. "After 'Cleopatra,' the star
smartly negotiated a 10 percent ownership in each of her films."Although Taylor bumped Jackson from the top spot, Forbes said the pop star is likely to regain it next year due to steady revenues from music sales and other ventures.
Cartoonist Charles Schulz, who created the Peanuts comic strip, came in at No. 4 with earnings of $37 million, followed by reggae star Bob Marley with $17 million.
Forbes compiled the ranking by analyzing the dead celebrities' earnings between October 2011-2012.
"We count money coming into the estate and we don't deduct for how the estate handles it," Forbes said.
Films stars and musicians dominated the list but Nobel-prize winning physicist Albert Einstein tied with Marilyn Monroe for seventh place, with each earning $10 million.
The 13 dead celebrities on the list earned a total of $532.5 million.
The full list can be found at http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/1024_dead-celebrities.html
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney, Editing by Christine Kearney and Tim Dobbyn)
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