PETALING JAYA: The entertainment world suffered a double blow when it was reported early Friday morning (Malaysian time) that both pop giant Michael Jackson and 1970s TV star Farrah Fawcett had died in Los Angeles.
Jackson, the “King of Pop” who once moonwalked above the music world, died as he prepared for a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.
He died Thursday at UCLA Medical Centre after being stricken at his rented home in Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.
“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known,” his brother Jermaine said. Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.
Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.
His 1982 album Thriller -- which included the blockbuster hits Beat It, Billie Jean and Thriller -- is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.
As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson’s heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital.
In New York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cellphone.
“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. “It’s like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died.”
The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Indiana. Among their No 1 hits were I Want You Back, ABC and I’ll Be There.
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller.
“He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music’s biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson’s death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.
As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure -- a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions, and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals.
The tabloids dubbed him “Wacko Jacko.”
“It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It’s as if he was trying to defy gravity,” said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a “disciple of PT Barnum” and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was “much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew.”
Jackson caused a furore in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behaviour with other children.
The case followed years of rumours about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.
Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug 29, 1958, in Gary. He was four years old when he began singing with his brothers -- Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito -- in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.
The album Thriller alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of Billie Jean, the grinding Eddie Van Halen solo on Beat It, and the hiccups and falsettos on Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.
The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through Billie Jean.
The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.
By then he had cemented his place in pop culture. He got the plum Scarecrow role in the 1978 movie musical The Wiz, a pop-R&B version of The Wizard of Oz, that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy.
During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson’s scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987’s Bad and 1991’s Dangerous, but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy’s family, reported to be US$20mil, and criminal charges were never filed.
Jackson’s expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album HIStory, which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson’s music was clearly waning, even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behaviour was growing.
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr, known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.
Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.
Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson’s star power was unmatched.
“The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it,” Werde said. “He’s literally the king of pop.”
Jackson’s 13 No 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.
“He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit,” he said. “People might have started to think of him again in a different light.”
Charlie’s sexiest Angel
Meanwhile Fawcett, the Charlie’s Angels star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s, died Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.
The pop culture icon, who in the 1980s set aside the fantasy girl image to tackle serious roles, died shortly before 9:30am in a Santa Monica hospital, spokesman Paul Bloch said.
Ryan O’Neal, the longtime companion who had reunited with Fawcett as she fought cancer, was at her side, along with close friend Alana Stewart, Bloch said.
“After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away,” O’Neal said. “Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world.”
Other Charlie’s Angels stars paid tribute to her.
“Farrah had courage, she had strength, and she had faith. And now she has peace as she rests with the real angels,” Jaclyn Smith said.
Said Cheryl Ladd: “She was incredibly brave, and God will be welcoming her with open arms.”
Fawcett burst on the scene in 1976 as one-third of the crime-fighting trio in TV’s Charlie’s Angels. A poster of her in a clingy swimsuit sold in the millions.
Her full, layered hairstyle became all the rage, with girls and women across America adopting the look.
She left the show after one season but had a flop on the big screen with Somebody Killed Her Husband. She turned to more serious roles in the 1980s and 1990s, winning praise playing an abused wife in The Burning Bed.
She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2006. As she underwent treatment, she enlisted the help of O’Neal, who was the father of her now 24-year-old son, Redmond.
This month, O’Neal said he asked Fawcett to marry him and she agreed, but they were unable to wed before she died.
Her struggle with painful treatments and dispiriting setbacks was recorded in a television documentary Farrah’s Story. Fawcett sought cures in Germany as well as the United States, battling the disease with iron determination even as her body weakened.
“Her big message to people is don’t give up, no matter what they say to you, keep fighting,” her friend Stewart said. NBC estimated the May 15, 2009, broadcast drew nearly nine million viewers.
In the documentary, Fawcett was seen shaving off most of her trademark locks before chemotherapy could claim them. Toward the end, she’s seen huddled in bed, barely responding to a visit from her son.
Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Smith made up the original Angels, the sexy, police-trained trio of martial arts experts who took their assignments from a rich, mysterious boss named Charlie (John Forsythe, who was never seen on camera but whose distinctive voice was heard on speaker phone.)
The programme made its debut in September 1976, the height of what some critics derisively referred to as television’s “jiggle show” era, and it gave each of the actresses ample opportunity to show off their figures as they disguised themselves in bathing suits and as hookers and strippers to solve crimes.
Backed by a clever publicity campaign, Fawcett -- then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors because of her marriage to The Six Million Dollar Man star Lee Majors -- quickly became the most popular Angel of all.
“She was an angel on Earth and now an angel forever,” Majors said Thursday.
Her face helped sell T-shirts, lunch boxes, shampoo, wigs and even a novelty plumbing device called Farrah’s faucet. Her flowing blond hair, pearly white smile and trim, shapely body made her a favourite with male viewers in particular.
A poster of her in a dampened red swimsuit sold millions of copies and became a ubiquitous wall decoration in teenagers’ rooms.
Thus the public and the show’s producer, Spelling-Goldberg, were shocked when she announced after the series’ first season that she was leaving television’s No 5-rated series to star in feature films. (Ladd became the new “Angel” on the series.)
But the movies turned out to be a platform where Fawcett was never able to duplicate her TV success. Her first star vehicle, the comedy-mystery Somebody Killed Her Husband, flopped and Hollywood cynics cracked that it should have been titled Somebody Killed Her Career.
The actress had also been in line to star in Foul Play for Columbia Pictures. But the studio opted for Goldie Hawn instead.
“Spelling-Goldberg warned all the studios that that they would be sued for damages if they employed me,” Fawcett told The Associated Press in 1979. “The studios wouldn’t touch me.”
She finally reached an agreement to appear in three episodes of Charlie’s Angels a season, an experience she called “painful.”
She returned to making movies, including the futuristic thriller Logan’s Run, the comedy-thriller Sunburn and the strange sci-fi tale Saturn 3, but none clicked with the public.
Fawcett fared better with television movies such as Murder in Texas, Poor Little Rich Girl and especially as an abused wife in 1984’s The Burning Bed. The last earned her an Emmy nomination and the long-denied admission from critics that she really could act.
As further proof of her acting credentials, Fawcett appeared off-Broadway in Extremities as a woman who is raped in her own home. She repeated the role in the 1986 film version.
Not content to continue playing victims, she switched type. She played a murderous mother in the 1989 true-crime story Small Sacrifices and a tough lawyer on the trail of a thief in 1992’s Criminal Behavior.
She also starred in biographies of Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld and photographer Margaret Bourke-White.
“I felt that I was doing a disservice to ourselves by portraying only women as victims,” she commented in a 1992 interview.
In 1995, at age 50, Fawcett posed partly nude for Playboy magazine. The following year, she starred in a Playboy video, All of Me,” in which she was equally unclothed while she sculpted and painted.
She told an interviewer she considered the experience “a renaissance,” adding, “I no longer feel ... restrictions emotionally, artistically, creatively or in my everyday life. I don’t feel those borders anymore.”
Fawcett’s most unfortunate career moment may have been a 1997 appearance on David Letterman’s show, when her disjointed, rambling answers led many to speculate that she was on drugs. She denied that, blaming her strange behaviour on questionable advice from her mother to be playful and have a good time.
In September 2006, Fawcett, who at 59 still maintained a strict regimen of tennis and paddleball, began to feel strangely exhausted. She underwent two weeks of tests and was told the devastating news: She had anal cancer.
O’Neal, with whom she had a 17-year relationship, again became her constant companion, escorting her to the hospital for chemotherapy.
“She’s so strong,” the actor told a reporter. “I love her. I love her all over again.”
She struggled to maintain her privacy, but a UCLA Medical Centre employee pleaded guilty in late 2008 to violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes for selling records of Fawcett and other celebrities to the National Enquirer.
“It’s much easier to go through something and deal with it without being under a microscope,” she told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in which she also revealed that she helped set up a sting that led to the hospital worker’s arrest.
Her decision to tell her own story through the NBC documentary was meant as an inspiration to others, friends said. The segments showing her cancer treatment, including a trip to Germany for procedures there, were originally shot for a personal, family record, they said.
And although weak, she continued to show flashes of grit and good humour in the documentary.
“I do not want to die of this disease. So I say to God, ‘It is seriously time for a miracle’,” she said at one point.
Born Feb 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, she was named Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett by her mother, who said she added the Farrah because it sounded good with Fawcett. She was less than a month old when she underwent surgery to remove a digestive tract tumor with which she was born.
After attending Roman Catholic grade school and WB Ray High School, Fawcett enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin. Fellow students voted her one of the 10 most beautiful people on the campus and her photos were eventually spotted by movie publicist David Mirisch, who suggested she pursue a film career. After overcoming her parents’ objections, she agreed.
Soon she was appearing in such TV shows as That Girl, The Flying Nun, I Dream of Jeannie and The Partridge Family.
Majors became both her boyfriend and her adviser on career matters, and they married in 1973. She dropped his last name from hers after they divorced in 1982.
By then she had already begun her long relationship with O’Neal. Both Redmond and Ryan O’Neal have grappled with drug and legal problems in recent years. -- AP
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