Elizabeth Taylor is Forbes' top-earning dead celebrity

A 1993 file photo of Elizabeth Taylor. / Brenda Chase/Getty

"The King of Pop" is no longer the top-earning dead celebrity.

According to Forbes, screen legend Elizabeth Taylor has 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.

Jackson, who has held the top spot since his 2009 death, was in second place with $145 million in earnings, followed by Elvis Presley whose estate earned $55 million. Rounding out the top five were Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, with earnings of $37 million, and Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley with $17 million.

• Pictures: Dollars after death
• Pictures: Elizabeth Taylor

Forbes, which compiled the ranking using celebrities' earnings between October 2011-2012, said Jackson is likely to regain the top with steady revenue from his music.

Forbes said Taylor's earnings included $184 million from the auctions and $75 million from sales of her perfume White Diamonds, which is the world's best-selling scent. The remainder came from property sales and residuals from her movies. In the second half of her career, Taylor negotiated an ownership percentage in any film she made.

The 13 dead celebrities on the list earned a total of $532.5 million. All but one -- Nobel-winning scientist Albert Einstein -- worked in the entertainment field. The others are former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, actors Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page, author Dr. Seuss and composer Richard Rodgers.

[ForMidnight]

I'm sure Elizabeth Taylor is very happy about this news.

[hypnotoad72]

Yay!

The zombies are amongst us!

I'm not sure if humanity was ever civilized, but I dare say that previous civilizations were more civilized than we are now...

I mean, are the dead so much better than what's alive that we're going to revere a bunch of corpses?

And all of the dead? Many who were celebrities got there for the right reasons. Not all of them, but we'll parade them around as being some sort of heroes as well...

[CBSgallivanter]

Of all the 13 celebrities on the list, Presley is the only one with a real after-life. Let em ellaborate. Yes, people purchse records by Bob Marley, buy his products, others go to see Cirque du Soleil productions inspired on both Michael Jackson and the Beatles, as well as buy their records, as well as read about them on coluntless biographies, others use products sponsored by Steve McQueen, go to auctions offering Marylin Monroe and Liz Taylor possessions, or memorabilia, read cartoons based on the Peanuts characters, rejoy with movies by Patty Page and learn about the 20th century's greatest scientific mind, that of Albert Einstein. Yet, Presley's afterlife not only includes most all of that, but offers those who are interested in his life another feature, one that adds another dimension to what is often referred to as an after-life, namely that of visiting his home. And this is done to the tune of 18 million paying customers, since Graceland opened. When you're in Venice, you have a choice of visiting but Goethe and Marco Polo's home, as you do when you go to both Vienna and Salzburg, to see where Mozart lived and died. If you go to England, chances are that you'll end uo touring Shakespeare's home, or Blenheim Castle, where Winston Churchill was born. That is an after-life