The Dead Shall Rise When They Hear Dollar Signs Michael Jackson never graced Forbes’ annual Celebrity 100 list during his life. In death, the King of Pop earned more in the past year than any star on that list, apart from Oprah Winfrey. Jackson not only took the No.1 spot on our 10th annual ranking of the Top-Earning Dead Celebrities , with gross earnings of $275 million, he out-earned the other 12 deceased stars on the list combined. Still more impressive: His estate's 12-month haul was greater than the pooled earnings of this year’s two biggest living acts, U2 and AC/DC. Jackson’s posthumous earnings come from his stake in the lucrative Sony/ATV catalog, the hit Sony ( SNE - news - people ) film This Is It and renewed fan interest in music, videos and all things Michael Jackson. “The death of Michael Jackson really put a focus on--crassly, quite frankly--what someone’s worth when they’re deceased,” says David Reeder, vice president of Corbis' GreenLight, which manages t...