12 Strange Things Celebrities Left in Their Wills
What happens when the rich and famous get to write the final chapter of their own story? For most people, a will is a straightforward document. A house here, some savings there. But celebrities? They have been known to treat their last will and testament like a personal stage for their most bizarre, touching, hilarious, or downright shocking final performances.
Some of these requests will make you laugh. Others might genuinely surprise you. A few might even make you feel something you didn’t expect. So buckle in, because this gallery of celebrity wills is anything but ordinary. Let’s dive in.
1. Dusty Springfield’s Cat Had a Better Life Than Most Humans
Most people leave their pets to a trusted friend or family member. Dusty Springfield decided to go considerably further. Springfield’s will demanded that her cat, Nicholas, be fed imported baby food, live in an indoor treehouse, be sung to sleep at night with Dusty’s old records, have his bed lined with Dusty’s pillowcase and nightgown, and get married to a friend’s female cat. Let that sink in. A cat. Married. With a dowry of imported baby food.
Honestly, it’s one of those requests that sounds completely unhinged until you remember how much people love their pets. All her wishes came true. Nicholas the cat reportedly received every single one of those wildly specific accommodations. There is something weirdly wonderful about that.
2. Karl Lagerfeld Left His Fortune to His Pampered Cat Choupette
When German fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld died at the age of 85, his cat Choupette stood to inherit a portion of his fortune. Choupette was left $1.5 million by the late designer, who passed away in 2019. This is the same cat who, by the way, had already amassed her own mini empire long before Lagerfeld’s death.
Choupette had her very own agent and, according to The New York Times, at the height of her fame she had two minders, a bodyguard, a doctor and a chef. The cross-species duo lived in France, which has strict laws disallowing money left to pets in wills. However, Lagerfeld likely addressed these legal issues prior to his death, hinting that the sum would be transferred leveraging his German citizenship, a country that allows animals to be estate beneficiaries. Lagerfeld truly played the long game.
3. Marilyn Monroe Left Everything to the Wrong Person
Marilyn Monroe is one of the most iconic figures in entertainment history, yet her will tells a story of broken family bonds and unexpected consequences. Her life and the drama between her and family members prompted her to write her family out of her will. Rather than leaving anything to her family, Marilyn’s will left all of her personal belongings to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg.
The directions to Strasberg were that he was supposed to distribute her personal belongings among her friends. However, Marilyn’s personal property was stored in Strasberg’s basement and remained there until he died. Afterwards, Strasberg’s widow auctioned off Marilyn’s property, earning millions of dollars for herself. It is a cautionary tale about vague instructions and the unpredictable nature of trust. Monroe wanted her belongings shared with loved ones. Instead, a stranger profited handsomely from them.
4. Harry Houdini Asked His Wife to Hold Séances After His Death
The legendary escape artist was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not willing to give up on one final impossible trick, even from beyond the grave. World-famous magician Harry Houdini didn’t leave a notable extravagance in his will, but he did include an unusual instruction. Houdini’s will requested that his wife hold a seance once per year after his death, and included a unique 10-digit code that he would supposedly use to identify himself in the afterlife.
His wife acceded to this request for the first 10 years following his death, but Houdini was reportedly never contacted. Ten attempts. Ten Halloweens. Ten silences. It is hard to say for sure, but there is something both heartbreaking and darkly funny about a magician trying to escape even death itself.
5. Mark Gruenwald Wanted His Ashes Printed Into Comic Books
Here is one of the most genuinely fascinating requests in the history of celebrity wills. A longtime lover of comics, Mark Gruenwald made it known among his friends and family that he desired to have his ashes used as part of a comic. In accordance with his request, he was cremated, and his ashes were mixed with the ink used to print the first printing of the trade paperback compilation of Squadron Supreme.
Gruenwald died of heart failure in 1996. A well-known practical joker, many believed the news of his death was a prank, as he had been cartwheeling in the writers’ room just a month before. There is something almost poetic about this. He spent his entire career giving life to fictional heroes. In death, he literally became part of their world. I think that is genuinely beautiful, in the most wonderfully strange way imaginable.
6. Jack Benny Left His Wife a Daily Rose for the Rest of Her Life
Popular 20th-century American comedian Jack Benny reportedly had a rocky marriage and he and his wife of 47 years were known for their constant bickering and passionate fights. Nevertheless, they totally adored each other and when Benny died on 26 December 1974, his wife Mary was emotionally bereft.
Not long before he died, Benny altered his will to include instructions for one of the most romantic gestures ever. He left a sizeable sum of money to a local florist who was to send Benny’s wife a single red rose every single day for the rest of her life. Mary outlived her husband by just over eight years and received more than 3,000 roses during this time. Honestly, among all the strange, bizarre, and shocking items on this list, this one hits differently. It’s not strange in an absurd way. It’s strange in a beautiful way.
7. Janis Joplin Bankrolled Her Own Posthumous Party
Janis Joplin was always about living loudly and freely. It makes complete sense that even her final legal document would reflect that spirit. Just two days before her death, Joplin made changes to her will. She left $2,500 to pay for a posthumous all-nighter event for 200 guests at her favourite pub in San Anselmo, California, “so my friends can get blasted after I’m gone.”
When she died in 1970, she had made changes to her will just two days before. She set aside $2,500 to pay for an all-night party for 200 guests at her favorite pub. That does not sound too strange until you realize that was $2,500 in 1970 dollars, which is over $16,000 in today’s money. A final round, on the house, courtesy of one of rock and roll’s greatest voices. There may be no better send-off ever written into a legal document.
8. Alexander McQueen Left Nearly $75,000 to His Dogs
Fashion designer Alexander McQueen was known for transforming tragedy, beauty, and darkness into couture masterpieces. His will, in a way, was no different. After he passed in 2010, he left most of his fortune to charity, but earmarked nearly $75,000 for his dogs. He also went further in his philanthropy than just his pets.
His will left £50,000 for his dogs, to enable them to be cared for the rest of their lives. He also left more than £400,000 to various animal charities. McQueen clearly loved animals with the same intensity he brought to everything else in his life. For someone so often associated with dark glamour, this tender gesture toward his dogs reveals a deeply compassionate side that many people never saw on the runway.
9. Leona Helmsley Left $12 Million to Her Dog and Nothing to Her Grandchildren
Let’s be real. This one caused a genuine public uproar when it came to light. The so-called “Queen of Mean” left her beloved pooch Trouble a $12 million trust fund, which was later reduced to $2 million, yet bequeathed two of her grandchildren nothing. The court ultimately decided the dog did not need quite that many millions to get by.
She even requested that the billions of dollars earmarked for the charitable trust be used to benefit dogs, not people. A woman famously quoted as saying only “little people” pay taxes apparently had more compassion for four-legged creatures than for her own flesh and blood. Shocking or not, it remains one of the most talked-about estate decisions in modern history.
10. Philip Seymour Hoffman Refused to Create “Trust Fund Kids”
Philip Seymour Hoffman was widely regarded as one of the most gifted actors of his generation. His approach to money and inheritance was equally unconventional. Hoffman was an intensely private man. Although he had three children, he stated in his will that he did not want to turn them into “trust fund kids” by leaving them money and instead chose to turn his estate over to his girlfriend of 14 years.
One last strange request was that his one son be raised in three different cities, namely San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Whether you agree with the logic or not, there is something very Hoffman about that decision. He was a man who clearly valued authentic human experience over comfort and ease. Still, it left his family navigating a painful and complicated situation after an already devastating loss.
11. Gene Roddenberry Asked to Be Launched Into Space
The creator of Star Trek spent his career imagining humanity’s future among the stars. It only makes sense that his final wish would take him there literally. Roddenberry really wanted to “boldly go where no man had gone before” and in his last will and testament he requested that his ashes be scattered into space.
In 1997, seven grams of his ashes were sent into space along with the remains of Timothy Leary, Gerard K. O’Neill and twenty-one other people aboard a Pegasus XL rocket which was launched from a site near the Canary Islands. He was among the first humans to ever have their ashes taken up into the earth’s orbit. For a man who gave the world the concept of exploring the final frontier, there could not be a more fitting farewell.
12. Robert Louis Stevenson Left His Birthday to a Friend
Here is one that sounds impossible but is completely real. Robert Louis Stevenson went one step further than most when he died. He left his birthday to a friend whose birthday fell on Christmas Day because she felt cheated. Think about that for a moment. A man actually gave away his birthday as a legal bequest. That is the kind of creative thinking you really only expect from the author of Treasure Island.
It is hard to say for sure whether this kind of gesture could ever be “legally enforced,” but the spirit of it is undeniably human. A generous, warm, slightly eccentric act of friendship, sealed in a legal document. It perfectly captures what these unusual celebrity wills remind us of again and again: that behind every fortune, every estate, every final signature, there is a person who simply wanted to be remembered in their own way.
