Michael Jackson
The celebrated American singer, songwriter, and dancer has been named the top-earning dead celebrity for the sixth year in a row, according to Forbes.
The late King of Pop raked in $400 million over the past year, mostly from the sale of his EMI Music Publishing stake. Additional cash comes from his Mijac Music catalogue, a new Sony record deal and projects like TV special Michael Jackson’s Halloween, said Forbes.
Jackson, whose sudden demise occurred in 2009 following an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol, has now made over $2 billion in earnings since he died.
Jackson, born in 1958, was a best-selling American singer, songwriter and dancer. As a child, he became the lead singer of his family’s popular Motown group, the Jackson 5. He later went solo and soon became an international sensation, delivering No. 1 hits from the albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad. Jackson died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009, while preparing for a series of comeback concerts scheduled to begin in July 2009. The heart attack was induced by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, and his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
