Michael Jackson rakes in $825m in a year to top dead celebrity rich list

Michael Jackson may have been dead almost eight years but he is still raking in the millions. The singer, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, made $825 million, according to Forbes’ top-earning dead celebrities list for 2016. The growth in his fortune was largely due to the $750m (£616m) sale of his half in the Sony-ATV Music Publishing catalogue. The singer has topped the list every year since his death, apart from coming second to Elizabeth Taylor in 2012.

He was always doing stuff that was the best, the greatest, the biggest. That was a big fight when he wanted to buy that catalog … it turned out to be one of the greatest investments ever

Jeff Jampol, who manages the estates of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison

Second on the list was Peanuts creator and cartoonist Charles M Schulz, who earned $48 million in the past year, followed by late golfer Arnold Palmer, with $40 million, most of which was earned while he was alive - he died just days before the Forbes cut-off date. Prince and David Bowie, who died in the first half of this year, were new entrants, with Prince at No.5 with $25 million and Bowie at 11th place on $10.5 million.

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