Shocking news from Los Angeles tonight. NBC News has confirmed pop super star Michael Jackson is dead at the age of 50. From NBC News world headquarters in New York, this is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. He was a shooting star유성, Michael Jackson was, in the American pop music scene including American popular culture as a whole. As we’ve been reporting, he was hoping for a career comeback including dozens of sold-out shows in London. Now our own Peter Alexander has a look back at the life and times of this very troubled but extraordinary performer.

From the beginning, you couldn’t take your eyes off him. His older brothers who made up the rest of Jackson Five sang and moved. But Michael, the youngest and clearly the prodigy신동, was the one who moved you. Under the tutelage보호 of producer Quincy Johns, Jackson later revolved선회 as a solo performer which redefined him for his already adoring홀딱반한 public. Fans also saw and seemed to like his unmistakable틀림없는 style, the military costumes복장 and that sequined반짝이는globe.

His 1982 album Thriller won eight Grammies made Jackson’s moonwalk a signature and gave him the stature성장 to call on any collaborator합작사 he chose. But just as quickly as his star rose, Jackson’s eccentricities별남 기행 became more clear including the changing color of his skin. Jackson also turned a California ranch목장 into a child’s fantasy called NEVERLAND.

But in 1993, a 13-year-old boy claimed that Jackson had molested성희롱 him. The case was settled청산되다 with Jackson never admitting any guilt유죄. “These statements about me are totally false.” Jackson was married twice. First, Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’s daughter, and three children after that marriage, failed to removed the suspicions, fanned by an unquenchable 막을 수 없는, 끌 수 없는 tabloid fire. He fed that fire, too, dangling대롱대롱매달다 his baby from a German hotel balcony, testifying woozily멍하게 in a bizarre기괴한 court appearance, telling a filmmaker there was nothing wrong with sharing his bedroom with children, including one child who in 2003 made another accusation that a boozy술 취한 Jackson had molested him. And this time, said so on the witness stand.

Michael Jackson had become the biggest star with truly international status, ever brought to trial on a serious felony charge. But still he was celebrated by a worldwide following and will forever be ranked among the greatest music artists of all time전대미문의. Peter Alexander, NBC News, New York.