I presume his fee for the film will stand, and will go to his estate. Much more interesting question if you talk about an actor who isn't involved with a film

I presume his fee for the film will stand, and will go to his estate. Much more interesting question if you talk about an actor who isn't involved with a film at all, either because they passed away a while ago, or they're just busy doing something else! I guess it'd be like selling image rights. Imagine if you could buy the rights to Mark Wahlberg for your Indy production? You get a Maya model and high quality scans included in the cost. Maybe you buy it from Shutterstock... Mental.