Pop Legend Micheal Jackson is Dead
Pop Megastar Michael Jackson Dies at 50
Thursday, June 25, 2009; 6:51 PM
Singer Michael Jackson, 50, died in Los Angeles today, various news sources reported. Jackson, a child Motown sensation who grew into a moonwalking megastar, sold millions of records, earning worldwide adoration in the 1980s. Later he came to be regarded as one of show business's legendary oddities, hopping from one public relations crisis to another.
The Los Angeles Times, citing city and law enforcement officials, reported late this afternoon that the singer was dead after being rushed to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Other news sources and Web sites also reported the death. The Times reported that the singer was not breathing when paramedics arrived at the singer's home, at 12:26 p.m. Pacific time.
Authorities were closing down the streets around UCLA and the hospital and were expected to make an announcement shortly.
Jackson was planning to appear in a sold-out series of concerts in London next month that would have run until March. Promoters of the concerts had recently said that the singer had passed a physical examination to assauge any doubts he was ready for a comeback.
For all his many successes as a child and young man, Jackson's later life devolved into a series of tabloid headlines, bizarre plastic surgeries, and more courtroom appearances than hit songs. After he was acquited of child molestation charges in 2005, Jackosn has led an increasingly reclusive life. He traveled the world with his three children, and the family's whereabouts were rarely known, as they jumped from hotels to rental homes around the world. His Neverland ranch north of Santa Barbara, Calif., is no longer the scene of private amusement fairs for needy children. He narrowly avoided having many of his belongings from the ranch sold at auction this year.
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