Michael Jackson's life was so full of headline-grabbing moments it tends to obscure his status as one of the most successful musicians of all time.
Jackson received 13 Grammy Awards, had 13 number one singles in the US and sold around 750m albums worldwide. Although there is some disagreement over absolute rankings, only Elvis Presley sits above Jackson in the pantheon of popular singers.
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His career began very early. Born in Gary, Indiana in 1958, Jackson was shaped by the ambitions of his father Joseph, a steel worker and amateur musician. Joseph Jackson routinely beat Michael and the other Jackson children — there were nine in total — and in later life Michael recounted how deeply this abuse had affected him.
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Jackson showed musical ability from the age of five and in 1964 joined his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon to form The Jackson Five. The band began touring locally in 1966, performing Motown covers, then signed with Motown Records in 1968.
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From the beginning Jackson was recognised as the most gifted of a talented family. His childlike vocal tone combined with the musical agility of black gospel singers to create what music critics later recognised as "musical genius".
True success began for The Jackson Five after they left Motown and signed with CBS Records in 1975, with Jackson fronting the band fulltime from 1976 and releasing several Top 20 hits such as "Can you feel it".
Jackson's solo career ran in parallel with the band until the success of his 1979 Off the Wall album — including "Don't stop 'til you get enough" — made it clear that Michael Jackson was a bigger act than the rest of his family.
The Thriller album, released in 1982, cemented Jackson's fame. It has been described as the most successful album of all time, with worldwide sales estimated to be as high as 100m.
Thriller ushered in the era of the music video, with the high-budget clips from hits like "Billie Jean" and "Beat it" also helping secure the place of the new music video channel MTV.
Jackson never scaled the heights of Thriller again, although his next album Bad (1987) was a commercial success with up to 30m copies sold worldwide and Dangerous (1991) also sold in the tens of millions.
After Thriller was released, media attention began to shift from Jackson's music and on to his increasingly bizarre life.
The immense wealth that flowed from Jackson's high royalty agreements - he personally received more than $2 from every copy of Thriller sold - financed an eccentric lifestyle.
In 1993, a 13-year-old boy made sex abuse allegations against Jackson, and prosecutors and police launched an investigation.
A year later, Jackson struck an out-of-court agreement with the family under which he paid out a total of around $30m, a deal which Jackson later said he regretted.
The deal halted the criminal case, which was being pursued by Tom Sneddon, the chief prosecutor in Jackson's trial.
As Jackson's personal life was complicated by his meteoric rise to fame, he also started undergoing a dramatic physical transformation.
Over the years, his skin became much lighter and he appeared to have had extensive plastic surgery on his face. Vanity Fair magazine reported in 2003 that the tip of his nose was actually a prosthesis.
In 1994, he stunned the public by marrying Lisa Marie Presley, the 26-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley.
The marriage lasted less than two years and was a hot topic for the tabloids. However, the renewed interest in Jackson's love life did not spark interest in his music.
In June 1995, he released the double album HIStory, Past, Present and Future, Book I to negative reviews and weak sales, despite Sony Music's $50m investment. And Jackson's next album, Invincible flopped.
Jackson then married Debbie Rowe, a 37-year-old nurse he met while undergoing plastic surgery in 1997. They had two children, Prince Michael and Paris Michael Katherine, before divorcing in 1999.
Jackson had custody of the two children and of a third, Prince Michael II, born to an unknown woman, when in November 2002 he came under fierce public criticism for dangling his youngest child from a fourth-floor hotel balcony in Berlin for photographers.
Adding to his woes, Jackson was also hit by a flurry of lawsuits from former aides and promoters and from a slew of people suing over alleged unpaid bills. Last November, Jackson and a Bahraini prince struck an "amicable" deal to avoid going to court in a multi-million dollar lawsuit.
The extent of Jackson's financial woes remains unclear, with conflicting reports about the singer's assets and debts.
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