King of Pop

Born

August 29, 1958 · Gary, Indiana, USA

Died

June 25, 2009 · Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication and involuntary manslaughter)

Birth name

Michael Joseph Jackson

Nicknames

The Gloved OneWacko JackoJackoKing Of PopMJAppleheadMikeMikeySmelly - called this by Quincy Jones because " Michael wouldn't say ‘funky.’ He’d say ‘smelly jelly.’"

Height

5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Biography

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, and entertained audiences nearly his entire life. His father, Joe Jackson (no relation to Joe Jackson, also a musician), had been a guitarist, but was forced to give up his musical ambitions following his marriage to Michael's mother Katherine Jackson (née Katherine Esther Scruse). Together, they prodded their growing family's musical interests at home. By the early 1960s, the older boys Jackie, Tito and Jermaine had begun performing around the city; by 1964, Michael and Marlon had joined in.

A musical prodigy, Michael's singing and dancing talents were amazingly mature, and he soon became the dominant voice and focus of the Jackson 5. An opening act for such soul groups as the O-Jays and James Brown, it was Gladys Knight (not Diana Ross) who officially brought the group to Berry Gordy's attention, and by 1969, the boys were producing back-to-back chart-busting hits as Motown artists ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Got to Be There," etc.). As a product of the 1970s, the boys emerged as one of the most accomplished black pop / soul vocal groups in music history, successfully evolving from a group like The Temptations to a disco phenomenon.

Solo success for Michael was inevitable, and by the 1980s, he had become infinitely more popular than his brotherly group. Record sales consistently orbited, culminating in the biggest-selling album of all time, "Thriller" in 1982. A TV natural, he ventured rather uneasily into films, such as playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), but had much better luck with elaborate music videos.

In the 1990s, the downside as an 1980s pop phenomenon began to rear itself. Michael grew terribly child-like and introverted by his peerless celebrity. A rather timorous, androgynous figure to begin with, his physical appearance began to change drastically, and his behavior grew alarmingly bizarre, making him a consistent target for scandal-making, despite his numerous charitable acts. Two brief marriages -- one to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley -- were forged and two children produced by his second wife during that time, but the purposes behind them appeared image-oriented.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. His passion and artistry as a singer, dancer, writer and businessman were unparalleled, and it is these prodigious talents that will ultimately prevail over the extremely negative aspects of his troubled adult life.

His famous quotation

"People think they know me, but they don't. Not really. Actually, I am one of the loneliest people on this earth. I cry sometimes, because it hurts. It does. To be honest, I guess you could say that it hurts to be me."

Michael Jackson had 28 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts while living, and to date has two posthumous Top 10 entries.

• 1971: "Got to Be There" #4.
• 1972: "Rockin' Robin" #2.
• 1972: "Ben" #1.
• 1979: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" #1.
• 1980: "Rock with You" #1.
• 1980: "Off The Wall" #10.
• 1980: "She's Out of My Life" #10