Michael Jackson - entertainer for most of his 50 years

Michael Jackson rehearsing for London concert     (AP Photo/Michael Jackson)

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group.

Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

Jackson showed musical talent early in his life, performing in front of classmates and others during a Christmas recital at the age of five.

In later years Jackson took part in multiple films and on a variety of TV shows.  In 1978, Jackson starred as Scarecrow in the film musical The Wiz.

In 1982, Jackson contributed the song "Someone In the Dark" to the storybook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial; the record won a Grammy for Best Album for Children.

The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller; a documentary produced by Jackson and John Landis and funded by MTV, sold over 350,000 copies in a few months of sale. The era saw the arrival of novelties like dolls modeled after Michael Jackson, that appeared in stores in May 1984 at a price of $12.Thriller retains a position in American culture. Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli explains,

At some point, Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple."

In the mid-80s Jackson suffered a setback for when he was filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Jackson suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire.

In 1986 he starred in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed 3-D film Captain EO. It was the most expensive film produced on a per-minute basis at the time, and was later hosted in Disney theme parks. Disneyland featured the film in its Tomorrowland area for nearly 11 years, while Walt Disney World screened the film in its Epcot theme park from 1986 to 1994.

From July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010, Jackson was scheduled to perform 50 sell out concerts to over one million people, at London's O2 arena. According to Jackson's website, tickets sales for the concerts broke several records. During a prior press conference, Jackson made suggestions of possible retirement but not before he bulked up some (plans to) with help from Lou Ferrigno.

Jackson was very generous in his donations, and one of them involved a future boys' school in Africa.  There had been rumors of a tour for Jackson.

If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with." - Michael Jackson

On June 25, 2009, Jackson was hospitalized after suffering a cardiac arrest. Jackson died shortly after. He had collapsed at his home in Los Angeles and after being taken to the hospital in a coma, that is where Jackson was reportedly pronounced dead.