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The defendant
In recent years, Jackson spent far more time in court than on stage. In addition to assorted civil lawsuits over concerts and other business arrangements that fell apart, Jackson was most notoriously entangled in the legal system over accusations of
www.1blueplanet.com misconduct with children.
In 1993 he was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy and settled the civil suit filed by the child's family for a reported $22 million. The boy in question refused to cooperate with investigators, who then never filed charges because of lack of evidence.
Jackson was accused again in 2003 by a 13-year-old companion who was filmed in interviews for the documentary Living With Michael Jackson, holding hands and talking about sleeping in the same room. The friendship ended when child-welfare investigators looked into the relationship, and the boy and his family accused the singer of
www.1blueplanet.comually mistreating him. The trial (pictured) became a media circus, though a jury ultimately acquitted him in 2005.
The humanitarian
Jackson had a huge soft spot for charitable causes. He gave millions of his own money and helped raise millions more to support advocacy groups ranging from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to the American Cancer Society. His efforts prompted a listing in the 2000 Guinness Book of World Records for most charities supported by a pop star.
He donated $1.5 million to a burn center, the proceeds from a settlement he received from PepsiCo after sustaining second-degree burns to his scalp while filming a 1984 TV commercial for the soft-drink giant. Later that year, he donated an additional $5 million to charity from his share of the Jackson 5's Victory Tour. Also that year, he was honored by President Reagan for his contributions to combat drug and alcohol abuse.
Jackson also co-wrote with Lionel RichieWe Are the World, the star-laden 1985 single that sold 20 million copies, raising millions for famine relief. He reprised the song (pictured) at London's World Music Awards in 2006.
Yet for all he gave away and the estimated $1 billion he grossed over his career, Jackson faced a series of cash crunches in recent years. In 2005, he owed an estimated $300 million to creditors and, a year later, closed the main house of his Neverland Ranch to cut costs.
The superstar
Jackson launched a solo career in 1972, not long after the Jackson 5's I Want You Back scaled the charts, though his first release was the modest-selling Got to Be There. He generated more sizzle with 1979's Off the Wall. But it was 1982's Thriller that provided Jackson his breakthrough. Thriller dominated music sales for the next two years, becoming the world's best-selling album of all time. Jackson could never duplicate Thriller's success, but his 1987 release, Bad, generated several hits. Through his career, the King of Pop won 13 Grammys and had 13 No. 1 hits. All told, Jackson sold 750 million albums.
The husband
After his first molestation accusation, Jackson — who had never been seen in a serious relationship — announced he had married Lisa Marie Presley, joining the King of Pop with the daughter of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. The couple went public by sharing a deep kiss onstage at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards (pictured). "Just think, nobody thought this would last," Jackson said, planting a smooch on his new wife, who in 2003 told Rolling Stonethat she "was terrified. It was his manager's idea. I thought it was stupid."
She also said that the marriage was real, not a sham, and that the two had
www.1blueplanet.com — something both emphasized on ABC's Prime Time Live in 1995. Alas, it didn't last. They divorced after about 20 months.
In 1996, he married Debbie Rowe, the nurse at his dermatologist's office. She gave birth to his two children, Paris and Prince Michael, and later gave him full custody as part of their divorce settlement.
The father
Jackson had a son, Michael Jackson Jr., aka Prince, and later a daughter, Paris, with Debbie Rowe before they divorced in 1999. For years, their faces were rarely seen in public, as he insisted on covering their faces with scarves.
More baffling was Jackson's handling of his third child, Prince Michael II, born to a mystery surrogate mother in 2002. Jackson dangled the baby from a balcony of a German hotel room, horrifying onlookers who thought Jackson was going to drop him. Jackson later admitted the prank was a terrible mistake.
The video star
Jackson's solo career coincided with a new musical format: the music video. 1983's Thriller was a groundbreaking 13-minute film short, a throwback to B-horror flicks of the 1950s with a boy, a girl and dancing ghouls risen from the grave. It was directed by John Landis (Animal House) with makeup by Oscar winner Rick Baker.
Group dance — and gang-fighting — was also the hallmark of Beat It (pictured). And his 1991 video for Black or White featured one of the earliest uses of computer morphing, as his face melded into dozens of different people. Among other iconic filmmakers he worked with: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.
The eccentric
More than a musician, Jackson may have been known around the world for being something else — a strange, strange man. It became hard to separate fact from fiction: Was the photo of him in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber a hoax? Did he really try to purchase the bones of the Elephant Man?
But Jackson did surround himself with children at his Neverland Ranch (pictured), an affinity that came to take on dark undertones after molestation accusations. And his skin color turned from dark brown to pale white — the symptom of a skin disorder, he said — and he subjected himself to numerous plastic surgeries to alter the shape of his face, ultimately reducing his wide nose to a thin remnant.
