Top 10 Celebrity Funerals
Long Live the King
The King of Rock 'n' Roll was just 42 when he suffered a fatal heart attack on a bathroom floor at his Graceland mansion on Aug. 16, 1977 — the night before he was supposed to kick off a 12-city comeback tour. It took less than two days for 25,000 fans to surround his Memphis home, where they endured 90-degree heat and entrepreneurs hawking $5 "commemorative" T shirts to pay their respects alongside mourners like James Brown, Ann-Margaret and George Hamilton. Though the actual funeral was closed to the public, the entire world would eventually get a glimpse of Elvis Presley's gray, swollen face after one of his cousins secretly snapped a photo of the open casket and sold it to the National Enquirer for $18,000. That image, plastered across the tabloid's cover, sold more than 6.5 million copies, making it one of the most lucrative — albeit lurid — photos in history. Even Caroline Kennedy managed to profit from Presley's untimely passing: though she was admitted to the funeral as a friend of the family, she later sold her account of the memorial to Rolling Stone.