A classic Dr Seuss character stars in Horton Hears a Who! which opens just in time for the Easter holidays
Theodor Geisel may be an unfamiliar name to you, but this guy ranked seventh - one place behind Andy Warhol but ahead of Marilyn Monroe - on the list of the highest-paid dead celebrities last year.
The reason for his posthumous wealth is that Geisel is Dr Seuss, the American cartoonist who has entertained generations of children and parents with his cartoon creations, from The Cat in the Hat to How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Geisel became Dr 'Seuss' (which was his middle name) after he was banned from writing by his college because he threw a drinking party. He used the pseudonym to continue writing for a college magazine.
He later moved to Britain in an attempt to earn a PhD in literature at the University of Oxford. There he met and married actress Helen Palmer.
In 1927, Geisel returned to America with his wife - and no degree. But it wasn't until after the second world war that he wrote some of his finest children books. He used a simple rhyming vocabulary which made his writing popular with children. They found the rhymes easy to read, and his quirky characters funny.
One of his popular fantasy characters is Horton, an elephant. He is the star of the new movie Horton Hears a Who!. The movie, produced by the creators of Ice Age, opens in Hong Kong on March 30.
