Michael Jackson, the self-styled "King of Pop," was one of the most successful and influential entertainers in the history of popular music, a singer, dancer, and showman whose talent and fame were matched by personal eccentricity and controversy. Born in Gary, Indiana, into a large and musically gifted family, he began performing as a small child as the dazzling lead singer of the Jackson 5, the Motown group made up of him and his brothers.
After years as a child and teen star, Jackson launched a solo career that reached extraordinary heights. His 1982 album Thriller, with its run of hit songs and groundbreaking music videos, became the best-selling album of all time, and Jackson revolutionized the new medium of the music video, turning it into a major art form and cultural force.
A mesmerizing performer, he was famous for his innovative dancing — above all the gliding "moonwalk" — his distinctive voice, and his elaborate, theatrical stage shows. For a time in the 1980s he was the most famous entertainer in the world, his every record and appearance a global event.
His later life was shadowed by increasingly strange behavior, dramatic changes in his appearance, financial troubles, and accusations of child molestation, of which he was acquitted in a sensational trial. As he prepared for a comeback, Jackson died suddenly in 2009 from an overdose of medications administered by his physician, his death prompting an outpouring of grief from fans around the world.