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Kurt Cobain tops dead celebrity earners list
Kurt Cobain leaped past Elvis Presley and into the No. 1 spot of this year's Forbes.com list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities, pushing Presley out of the top slot for the first time since the list's inception.
According to the website's calculations, the late Nirvana frontman earned $50 million from October 2005 -October 2006, besting Presley's $42 million posthumous income over the same period.
Most of Cobain's posthumous take came because his widow, Courtney Love, sold a 25 percent stake in Nirvana's song catalog to a publishing company.
Physicist Albert Einstein made the list for the first time, checking in at No. 5 with a $20 million take. According to the report, Einstein's estate earns money every time his visage or name is featured on a product. Disney's popular line of "Baby Einstein" toys and videos substantially increased Einstein's earning power over the last year.
Among the other musical performing artists on the list, John Lennon ranked No. 4 at $24 million, while Ray Charles , ranked No. 8, pulled in $10 million, with Johnny Cash rounding out the top ten. Cash earned $8 million over the report's period.
Other musical personalities on the list include George Harrison and Bob Marley, tied in the No. 12 spot, at $7 million.
The full list, and an article including the methodology used in obtaining the earning figures, is available at Forbes.com's special website for the report.
