John Lennon (5)

John Lennon
1940-1980
Onetime Beatle; anthemic activist
here
Cause of Death: Murdered by stalker Mark Chapman Shot You Down: Chapman said in 2004 that in killing Lennon he intended “to steal [his] fame.” But death proved the genesis of the Lennon myth, and the Lennon business: His estate earned $22 million in 2005 alone.
Oh, Yoko: Lennon’s profile is sustained both by continuing public fascination and the hands-on management of his musical legacy by his widow, Yoko Ono. Immediately after his death, the single “(Just Like) Starting Over” and the album it was taken from, Double Fantasy, reached No. 1 in the Billboard charts. His name has since been attached to everything from children’s toys (the “Real Love” range based on his sketches of animals) to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport (slogan: “Above us only sky”).
Peer Plaudits: His violent death cemented Lennon’s status as a counterculture icon—in spite of biographies that depict his last years as a tangle of drug addiction, self-doubt and an obsession with numerology. Hollywood is now taking an interest with Chapter 27, starring Jared Leto as Mark Chapman. The producers might hope it fares better than Lennon, the Yoko-endorsed Broadway musical that closed in September 2005 after just six weeks.