Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, in 1958, the eighth of ten children. From five he was performing lead vocals with his brothers as the Jackson 5; by ten he was a Motown star. His solo album Off the Wall (1979) sold over twenty million copies; the follow-up Thriller (1982) sold over seventy million, the most of any single album in history, and changed what pop videos could look like — the long-form video for the title track is regularly cited as a cultural turning point. His 1983 Motown 25 performance of 'Billie Jean,' which introduced the moonwalk to a global audience, was watched by 47 million Americans. Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991) consolidated his global reach. The last two decades of his life were shadowed by chronic pain, plastic surgery, two separate accusations of child sexual abuse (one settled, one acquitted), and addiction to prescription drugs. He died on June 25, 2009, at fifty, of acute propofol intoxication.
All Figures
Singer · Dancer · The King of Pop
Michael Jackson
1,958 CE – 2,009 CE
The Indiana child star who became the most commercially successful entertainer of all time — and whose 1982 album Thriller still holds the record for most copies sold worldwide.
Lifetime
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