Biography
Date of Birth
29 August 1958, Gary, Indiana, USA
Date of Death
25 June 2009, Los Angeles, California, USA
Birth Name
Michael Joseph Jackson
Nickname
The Gloved One
Wacko Jacko
Jacko
King Of Pop
MJ
Height
5' 10" (1.78 m)
Mini Biography
American superstar Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana in 1958
and has been entertaining audiences nearly his entire life. His father,
Joseph Jackson, had been a guitarist but was forced to give up his
musical ambitions following his marriage to Katherine (Scruse).
Together they prodded their growing family's musical interests at home.
By the early 60s 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 chartbusting hits as Motown
artists. As a product of the 70s, the boys had emerged as one of the
most accomplished black pop/soul vocal groups in music history,
successfully evolving from a Temptations-like group act to a disco
phenomenon.
Solo success for Michael was inevitable, and by the
80s he had become infinitely more popular than his brotherly group.
Record sales consistently orbited, culminating in the biggest-selling
album of all time, "Thriller." A TV natural, he ventured rather
uneasily into films, such as playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), but had better luck with elaborate music videos.
In
the 90s the down side as an 80s pop phenomenon began to show. Michael
grew terribly child-like and introverted by his 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 were obviously image oriented. Despite it all,
Michael Jackson's skills as a singer, dancer, writer and businessman
are unparalleled, and it is these prodigious talents that will
ultimately prevail over the extremely negative aspects of his seriously
troubled life.