Bringing the Dead Back to Life: Preparing the Estate for a Post-Mortem Acting Role

This comment will analyze the legal history of the right to persona and how those rights extend post-mortem. It will first touch on the science and ethics of bringing deceased actors back to life using digital technology, then focus on case law and state statutes that deal with post-mortem right to publicity. Finally, this paper will focus on the methods actors may use to prevent their digital resurrection, as well as ways that they may ensure and plan for it. The goal is to provide the reader with direction as to how an individual might prepare or prevent their likeness from one day returning to the silver screen.