Mickey Rooney
Famous actor and comedian Mickey Rooney – infamous for his portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi, but famous for roles in “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” “Babes in Arms,” and even “Night at the Museum” – died without much in his bank account. A mere eighty thousand dollars waited for his wife and children when he passed away in 2014. But, according to his will, they were to get none of it.
The family was furious and ended up contesting the will, but lost. Only one member of the Rooney family got anything out of Mickey’s death: his stepson and caretaker, Mark Aber. If you’re wondering why Rooney didn’t have much, it was due to a lack of royalty payments, as well as financial mismanagement and elder abuse by a different stepson.
Tupac
Some members of this list left us far too soon when they still had plenty of good to offer the world. Tupac, one of the rap genre's greatest sons, left us in 1996, and while he didn't have the chance to write a true and proper will, he still snuck one of his last requests into the song “Black Jesuz”: “Cremated, last wishes n****s smoke my ashes.”
Without a doubt, it's one of the strangest requests on this list, but believe it or not, a few of his friends actually did it. They cremated Tupac, mixed his ashes with marijuana, and got their puff on. Did it...change the flavor?
Adam Yauch
Once a member of the Beastie Boys, always a member of the Beastie Boys. Adam “MCA” Yauch wanted to make sure that nobody could profit off of his image or music after he passed, which he did in 2012 from parotid cancer. While the legal validity of the will has been called into question, so far the other members of the Beastie Boys have stood by Yauch, and none of the songs have been used in advertising since his death.
Yauch and the other boys had always maintained their artistic control even while working with big labels, and it's this ideal that continues after Yauch's death.
Jeremy Bentham
You may not know who Jeremy Bentham is, but you should. This British lawyer and philosopher accomplished many things during his time on Earth, between the years of 1748 and 1832, but the thing that most people remember him for his incredible strange will.
While the will included all of the normal things, it also said that he wanted his body to be preserved, stuffed with hay, and put on display in the University College London. It was done, and incredibly his body is still on display. Dr. Thomas Smith, the executor of Bentham's will, personally stuffed Bentham. No, that's not a euphemism.
John Bowman
Most of the wills on this list are funny, or humorous, or just kind of strange. John Bowman's will is for a different reason. You see, this tanning scion and Vermont socialite had a beloved wife and daughter who died before he did. Bowman left fifty thousand dollars behind to employ staff in his big 21-room mansion and mausoleum, just in case his wife and daughter came back to life and needed to be taken care of.
Servants and employees dutifully carried out this stipulation until 1950, when the trust money ran out. His family never rose from the dead, and neither did he.