[Trivia] “Show me the money!” - The Forbes Fictional 15

Here's a good trivia - do you know who the richest man in the world is?

Warren Buffett has recently overtaken Bill Gates as the richest man on the planet. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. Bill Gates was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.

Now, here’s an even better trivia – who’s the richest fictional character in the world/solar system?

Once in a while, Forbes comes up with a list of the 15 richest people in the realm of fiction. The members are characters from movies, books, cartoons and television.

According to Forbes.com, to qualify for the Fictional 15, they require that candidates “be an authored fictional creation, a rule that excludes mythological and folkloric characters. They must star in a specific narrative work or series of works. And they must be known, both within their fictional universe and by their audience, for being rich. Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character's source material, and are valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we sought to identify comparable fictional public companies.” All prices are as of market close, Dec. 10, 2007.

Before we start the list, comparing the Forbes’ current list from their previous ones (2002 and 2005), Santa Claus is notably absent for the first time. He topped the previous two listings. Forbes stated, "We still estimate Claus's net worth as infinite, but we excluded him from this year's rankings after being bombarded by letters from outraged children insisting that Claus is "real."

Now, on to the list!

#15 Princess Peach

Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Source: Inheritance, Commodities
Age: 23 Marital
Status: Divorced
Hometown: Mushroom Kingdom
Education: Toad's Finishing School for Girls

Princess Peach is a video game character in Nintendo's Mario video games series. She usually plays the "damsel in distress" role in the adventure series. Peach is the human princess of the fictitious Mushroom Kingdom. She was known as Princess Toadstool in the West until late 1996, when she added the name "Peach" to her signature in the opening scene of Super Mario 64.


[More Trivia] - Shigeru Miyamoto is the creator of the Super Mario Bros. games series. As of 2008, Super Mario Bros. is the best selling video game of all time.

#14 Malfoy, Lucius

Net Worth: $1.6 billion
Source: Inheritance
Age: 51
Marital Status: Married
Hometown: Wiltshire, England
Education: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry


In the Harry Potter book series, Lucius Malfoy is one of main antagonists. He is a Death Eater and head of a pure-blood wizarding family; he lives with his wife Narcissa Malfoy and their son Draco at the Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire.

#13 Wonka, Willy


Net Worth: $1.9 billion
Source: Candy, Aerospace
Age: 57
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: Kent , England
Education: Academie d'Art Culinaire, Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Willy Wonka is a character in the classic Roald Dahl children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. He is the founder of the Wonka Candy Company and the inventor of candies such as Wonka Bars and Everlasting Gobstoppers.


[More Trivia] - Roald Dahl also wrote the stories Matilda and James and the Giant Peach, both made into films.


#12 Addams, Gomez


Net Worth: $2.0 billion
Source: Inheritance, Investing
Age: 51
Marital Status: Married
Hometown: Westfield, N.J.
Education: Astin School of Law, J.D.

Gomez Addams is the fictional patriarch of The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine in the 1930s. Gomez was played by Raúl Juliá in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993).


[More Trivia] – The Addams Family members are: Morticia (Gomez’ wife), Grandma Addams (mother of Gomez), Uncle Fester (Gomez’ brother), Wednesday, Pugsley and Pubert (children), Grandpa Addams, Lurch (butler) and Cousin Itt.

#11 Jobs, Fake Steve

Net Worth: $5.7 billion
Source: Walt Disney Co., Technology
Age: 52 1/2
Marital Status: Married, 3 children
Hometown: Palo Alto, Calif.
Education: Reed College, dropout

Fake Steve Jobs is the pseudonym of the high-profile blogger behind The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, a popular blog and parody of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. It was later revealed that the real person behind those blogs was David Lyons, a writer and a senior editor at Forbes magazine.


[More Trivia] - In October 2007, he released the book Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody, under the pseudonym "Fake Steve Jobs".


#10 Stark, Tony

Net Worth : $6.0 billion
Source: Defense
Age: 35
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: New York, N.Y.
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.S.

Tony Stark is the real identity of Iron Man, the superhero of the hour. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, Iron Man first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963). Tony Stark, after suffering a severe heart injury and being kidnapped, was forced to build a devastating weapon. He created a suit of power armor to save his life and help protect the world as Iron Man. In the 2008 movie, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is shown wearing just three armors - Mark I, Mark II and Mark III.


[More Trivia] - Business Week has also ranked Iron Man as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics. Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards topped the list.

#9 Howell III, Thurston

Net Worth: $6.3 billion
Source: Howell Industries
Age: 60
Marital Status: Married, no children
Hometown: Private Island, South Pacific
Education: Harvard University , B.A.

Thurston J. Howell, III is a character on the CBS television sitcom Gilligan's Island, which was in first-run from 1964 to 1967. When asked what happened to him during the Great Depression, his wife says that he lost most of his money and "became just a millionaire." Among his assets were a diamond mine, a coconut plantation, a railroad, an oil well, and 40 acres in Colorado—which included all of downtown Denver—that he bequeathed to his fellow castaways in his will.

#8 Wayne, Bruce

Net Worth: $7.0 billion
Source: Inheritance, Defense
Age: 32
Marital Status: Single, one son
Hometown: Gotham City , U.S.A.

Batman's secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy industrialist, playboy, and philanthropist. This character was co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger and published by DC Comics. The character made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939).

[More Trivia] – His parents were Thomas and Martha Wayne. He was also named by Business Week as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics, second to Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.

#7 Pewterschmidt, Carter

Net Worth: $7.2 billion
Source: Inheritance, Media, Steel
Age: 70
Marital Status: Married, three children
Hometown: Newport, R.I.
Education: Yale University, B.A.

Carter is the patriarch of the Pewterschmidts, a fictional family on the animated television series Family Guy. They are very rich and were among the first families to colonize America from England, settling in Newport, Rhode Island.

#6 Burns, C. Montgomery

Net Worth: $8.4 billion
Source: Energy
Age: 104
Marital Status: Single, one bastard child
Hometown: Springfield, U.S.A.
Education: Yale University, B.S.

Charles Montgomery Burns, normally referred to as Mr. Burns or "Monty" Burns is a recurring fictional character and antagonist in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is the owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and Homer Simpson's boss (and often his arch-nemesis). He is attended to at almost all times by Waylon Smithers, his loyal and sycophantic aide, advisor, confidant and secret admirer. Mr. Burns is Springfield's richest and most powerful citizen.


[More Trivia] - The Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Groening named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name.

#5 Clampett, Jed

Net Worth: $11.0 billion
Source: Oil & Gas, Banking
Age: 51
Marital Status: Widowed, one child
Hometown: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Education: Ozark Elementary, dropout

Jed "J.D." Clampett is the widowed patriarch of a hillbilly family transplanted to Beverly Hills, California after finding oil on their land in the American television series The Beverly Hillbillies.

#4 Mom

Net Worth: $15.7 billion
Source: Technology, Conglomerates
Age: 158
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: New New York City
Education: Mars University

Mom is a fictional character and recurring antagonist on the animated series Futurama. She is the bitter, ruthless, and 99.7% (the remaining 0.3% equally divided amongst her three sons) shareholder & CEO of Momcorp, the largest industrial conglomerate known to man, with subsidiaries ranging from Mom's Friendly Robot Company to Mom's Old-Fashioned Video Surveillance Unit. She is the richest person on Earth and maintains a public image of being a sweet, matronly figure through use of a fatsuit, a heart-shaped hairdo and talented acting, when in fact she is extremely thin, foul-mouthed, and malevolent.


[More Trivia] - Futurama is created by Matt Groening of The Simpsons fame. The name "Futurama" comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted what he imagined the world to look like in 1959.


#3 Rich, Richie

Net Worth: $16.1 billion
Source: Inheritance, Conglomerates
Age: 10 Marital Status: Single
Hometown: Richville , U.S.A.
Education: Richville Elementary

Richard "Richie" Rich, Jr. is a fictional character that debuted in Harvey Comics' Little Dot #1, cover-dated September 1953. Richie is the only child of fantastically wealthy parents and is the world's richest kid. He lives and works in an expensive mansion and owns at least two of everything money could buy.

[More Trivia] – The name of the Rich’s butler is Cadbury; Richie’s dog is Dollar; and Richie’s maid/bodyguard robot is named Irona. And yes, Richie’s girlfriend is Gloria Glad.


#2 Merciless, Ming The

Net worth: $20.9 billion
Source: Slavery, Technology
Age: 74
Marital Status: Widower
Hometown: Mingo City, Planet Mongo
Education: Private imperial tutors\

Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serial, TV shows and movie. He rules the planet Mongo, whose capital is named Mingo City.

[More Trivia] – The science fiction comic strip Flash Gordon was originally drawn by Alex Raymond.

#1 McDuck, Scrooge

Net Worth: $28.8 billion
Source: Mining, Treasure Hunting
Age: 80 Marital Status: Single
Hometown: Duckburg, U.S.A.
Education: Cluck U., dropout

Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a fictional Scottish Glaswegian anthropomorphic duck created by Carl Barks that first appeared in Four Color Comics #178, Christmas on Bear Mountain, published by Dell Comics in December, 1947. Scrooge's name is based on the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, a character from Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol. It is also theorized that Scottish industrialist Andrew Carnegie. in 2007, Glasgow City Council added Scrooge to its list of "Famous Glaswegians", alongside the likes of Billy Connolly, Sir Alex Ferguson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

[More Trivia] – Scrooge’s famous nephew is Donald Duck. Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck. Donald's birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film, The Wise Little Hen, was released. Donald Duck is the only popular film and television cartoon character to appear as a mascot for a major American university: a licensing agreement between Disney and the University of Oregon allows the school's sports teams to use Donald's image as its "Fighting Duck" mascot. In 1984 Donald Duck was named an honorary alumnus of the University of Oregon during his 50th birthday celebration.


Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

www.forbes.com

www.businessweek.com


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