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There have been a number of well documented cases of a celebrity dying prematurely, and the death is followed immediately by a phenomenon of people buying anything and everything that has that famous persons' image on it.

Probably one of the most extreme cases was that of Princess Diana, and how her shocking demise resulted in an unprecedented display of worldwide grief that included millions upon millions of dollars being spent to buy various commemorative items, ranging from T-shirts to magazines. In a twist of irony, Elton John ended up setting a world record for the highest number of sales for a single recording when his ode to Diana, a reworking of Candle In The Wind, was released after he had sang it at her funeral, and it sold over 33 million copies. What made this case special was that all of the sales' proceeds went to Diana's charitable fund, at Elton's bequest, so that he did not benefit financially from her death.

But that is a very rare case, because in the past a great many people reap immediate monetary rewards after the death of some celebrities. Whether it's in the case of Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur, John Lennon, or Elvis Presley, all of their sudden deaths resulted in a surge of record sales and memorabilia being purchased. And in many cases, because a lot of it is unlicensed material, the deceased person's estate receives either very little or no proceeds from these sales.

Another irony is that in the case of a music performer, the record companies have found that a bit of creative marketing or even reworking of the original material can be a virtual gold mine for them, as a new generation discovers these once great artists. Musicians such as Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles (with 2 members deceased), have sold more records since their deaths than when they were alive, largely due to such record company tactics which do benefit the artists' estates.

In a more recent example of celebrity death and it's results on their career, Heath Ledger is receiving glowing critical reaction for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, but many are in agreement that this is not a result of a sympathy vote, but is merely a sincere statement of his amazing performance. This latest installment of the Batman series set box office records when it opened, but it is debatable if this was a direct result of Ledger's death or just the fact that there was a lot of pre-opening hype revolving around the entire film.

The one certainty is that when a celebrity does die prematurely, they seem to acquire an almost god-like status about them, so that recollections of their life become sanitized and they become larger in death than they were in life. Both Elvis and John Lennon had a number of negative character flaws at various times in their life, but once they had died there seemed to be an unwritten rule that to speak about any of these would be sacrilegious in many ways.

A great example of this is in the case of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, who we all know was leading a reckless life of sexual promiscuity of an almost unimaginable scale. Although this information was well known amongst a number of prominent media both before and after his death, it would be over two decades later that a sincere accounting of his behaviour would ever see the light of day.

And whether this is a case of people not wanting to speak ill of the dead, or of the deceased acquiring this iconic status, the one certainty is that many times fans and followers of these celebrities prefer to remember the good that this person brought into the world, and forget all the negative details of their fallen idols.

Learn more about this author, Shane Christensen.
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