But wouldn't they rather be alive?

Elvis Remains Top-Earning Dead Celeb

Elvis is still the king when it comes to earning royalties, according to Forbes magazine, but Shakespeare could have given him a run for the money. Forbes' annual list of Ten-Top Earning Dead Celebrities showed Elvis Presley was top earner for the fifth straight year, generating $45 million for his estate.

"Peanuts" cartoonist Charles Schulz held his customary spot at No. 2, with $35 million.

Presley died in 1977 and his music is still going strong, but he has a long way to go to outlast Shakespeare, still on theater marquees nearly 400 years after his death.

The magazine calculated what the Bard's heirs might collect each year if he were still under copyright and estimated it at $15 million with over 5,000 performances of his plays and hundreds of thousands of books sold in the last year.

That would put him behind fellow Englishman and former Beatle John Lennon (No. 3 at $22 million) and artist Andy Warhol (No. 4, $16 million) and ahead of dead heavyweights such as Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe.

This year's list also showed the big impact of Hollywood, as Johnny Cash and Ray Charles broke into the top rankings as the release or planned release of film biographies boosted their royalty statements.

I like to think, if they knew who Iw as, that they would vote me "Dan Of The Year."

Movie Fans Vote Rourke 'Man of the Year'

LONDON - British movie fans have voted Mickey Rourke "man of the year" for his portrayal of the swaggering down-on-his-luck Marv in "Sin City."

"Batman Begins," the most recent adventure of the comic superhero starring Christian Bale in the title role, was voted top film of 2005.

The movie fought off competition from "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" to land the No. 1 spot in the poll of 15,000 film fans by Total Film magazine. The poll was released Sunday.

Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid, who played Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in "Revenge of the Sith," was named best movie villain; 11-year-old Dakota Fanning was named best child actor for her role in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds"; and the nut-eating squirrels in Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" were named best movie animal.

"`Batman Begins' was a smart but funny reinvention of an iconic figure and had fantastic performances. It was also excellently directed by Christopher Nolan," said Total Film editor Nev Pierce.

"Film fans want more and `Batman Begins' overcomes the horrible taste that previous outing `Batman & Robin' left in people's mouths," Pierce said.