Michael Jackson: Life In Pictures
JACKO: FACT V FICTIONPA Photos
PA Photos1958 – Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, the seventh child of a musical family from the town of Gary, Indiana. His older brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon were to go on with Michael to form The Jackson 5.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
Rex Features1966 – After success in a school talent competition, The Jackson 5 was born. Within two years the band signed a lucrative deal with Motown Records, and went on to become one of the world’s biggest pop acts of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
Rex Features1979 – Michael’s solo career began with the epic Off The Wall album. Produced by Quincy Jones, the record sold 20 million copies, and secured Michael Jackson’s status as a solo star.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
Rex Features1982 - His career continued to go from strength to strength when the long-awaited follow-up to Off The Wall, Thriller, was finally released to the world, initially with a 10-minute mini zombie movie as the video for the title track. It is the biggest selling album worldwide of all time.
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PA Photos1984 – The singer suffered serious burns after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire while he was recording a Pepsi TV advert. Michael set up a burns unit with his $1.5 million payout.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
PA Photos1986 – As well as keeping a chimpanzee called Bubbles that shared his loo, Jackson was reported in a series of bizarre press stories that finally earnt him the nickname Wacko Jacko. Some commentators believe Jackson actually enjoyed being perceived as an eccentric.
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PA Photos1988 – After releasing the album Bad in 1987, Michael built his Neverland Ranch home, complete with an amusement park for children, the following year.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
Rex Features1993 - Jackson was accused of sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy but the two sides reached a $22 million out-of-court settlement. Jackson was later to claim the payout was ordered by his record company.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
PA Photos1994 – Just a year after the allegations, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, but the marriage broke up two years later as she filed for divorce. In 1996 Michael announced he was to marry Australian nurse Deborah Rowe. The couple met in the 1980s when he was first diagnosed with vitiligo, a skin disorder which changed the pigmentation of his skin.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
PA Photos2000 – Michael has two children with Deborah, who he went on to divorce in 1999, “Prince” Michael Junior and Paris. Jackson’s third child, Prince Michael Jackson II, was born to an unnamed mother by artificial insemination in 2002.
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PA Photos2003 – Michael Jackson invited a TV crew and journalist Martin Bashir into Neverland Ranch and then told the interviewer he regularly slept in the same bed as children who visited. Shortly after the film was broadcast, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child abuse. At the trial in 2005, he was found not guilty on all counts.
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PA Photos2009 – His 50-date residency at the 02 was to be his first live show for 12 years. After cancelling early performances due to health problems, Jackson died in a California hospital from a believed cardiac arrest on 25 June.
JACKO: FACT V FICTION
