Singer, songwriter. Born August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. With his brothers, Jackie, Tito, Marlon, and Jermaine in the pop group The Jackson Five, later The Jacksons, he knew stardom from the age of 11, and sang on four consecutive No. 1 hits. Between 1972 and 1975 he also had six solo hits on the Motown record label. In 1977 he played the scarecrow in The Wiz, a black remake of the film The Wizard of Oz.
His first major solo album was Off The Wall (1979), a collaboration with Quincy Jones, and he consolidated his career with Thriller (1982), which sold over 35 million copies and helped to establish him as one of the major pop superstars of the 1980s. He repeated this success with his album Bad (1987), and in 1988 wrote an autobiography Moonwalk, which was filmed as Moonwalker. Deals in 1991 for handling his album Dangerous were the most lucrative in pop history. HIStory appeared in 1995.

Having been a celebrity since childhood, he developed a reclusive lifestyle in adulthood, though he continues to tour widely. Worldwide publicity surrounded him in 1993, when allegations about his sexual life caused the cancellation of an international tour on health grounds. He married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, but they divorced in 1996. Later that year he married nurse Debbie Rowe. Jackson and Rowe have a son, Prince Michael, and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine.