Michael Jackson

One of the great pop music stars of the 1980s, Michael Jackson is now known less for his music than for his erratic behavior and plastic surgeries. Jackson became a singing superstar at age 11, when he had four consecutive #1 hits with his youthful band of brothers, The Jackson Five. He went solo in 1972 with the album Got to Be There and embraced the glitter of disco with Off the Wall (1979). After his smash 1982 album Thriller yielded seven top-ten hits, Jackson was dubbed "The King of Pop." His next album, Bad, topped the charts in 1987 as Jackson became one of the early stars of MTV and an international hitmaker. Then his eccentric lifestyle began to overwhelm his recording career, and Jackson became a favorite of the gossip sheets. In 1994 he married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis (a.k.a. "The King"), but they divorced in 1996. Also notorious were Jackson's long series of cosmetic surgeries, rumors of exotic pets and superstar peccadilloes at Jackson's estate (which he dubbed "Neverland", a reference to the story of Peter Pan), followed by another brief marriage to Deborah Rowe (1996-99) and multiple accusations of inappropriate conduct with children. In 2005 he was tried on charges of child molestation and conspiracy related to his relationship with a 13-year-old boy. Jackson was acquitted on all charges after a trial that year.

Extra credit: Jackson played the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie The Wiz, a takeoff on The Wizard of Oz; the role was played by Ray Bolger in the original 1939 film... Jackson's sister, Janet Jackson, was a pop superstar of the 1990s... Michael Jackson did not buy the bones of the Elephant Man, despite rumors to the contrary... Jackson has two children with Rowe: son Prince Michael (b. 1997) and daughter Paris Michael Katherine (b. 1998). He also has a third child, Prince Michael II (2002), whose mother has not been publically named... The name of Jackson's famous pet chimp is Bubbles... Thriller has sold over 100 million copies, making it the best-selling album of all time... Jackson is no relation to the British food and liquor expert Michael Jackson.