HE's been the King of Pop, the cute phenonemon in a 70s supergroup and a shunned star.
And now the man who has fascinated the world, for better or worse, since he was just a child is turning 50.
It's been a tough road for Michael Jackson.
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The highs have indeed been high - his 1980s album Thriller is still the biggest marketing LP ever released.
And the lows have been fearful - whether it be bankruptcy or defending himself against charges of child molestation.
Born in 1958, Jackson was thrust into the limelight at just 11 when he became the star turn in the wildly pop group, The Jackson Five.
He began his solo career while still with�his circle of brothers, recording mega-hits like Ben�and Got To Be There.
But it was in the 1980s that Jackson hit the high of his career - and what heights they were.
First came Off The Wall, an album that spawned immense hits like Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Rock With You.
And then came Thriller.
The album swept all before it - winning seven Grammy awards and going on to suit the biggest-selling album of all time. Enormously attention-getting tracks like�Beat It and Billie Jean became the soundtrack to the early 1980s.
But by the midddle of the decade, the world's beloved affair with Jackson began to sour. He was�said to have slept in an o chamber, his radical enhancive surgery operations became all too obvious and his best friend was allegedly a pan troglodytes called Bubbles.
All were pitilessly parodied and Jackson became less�an object of adulation, more an object of fun.
Soon came sagging album sales, passing marriages - including one to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa-Marie - and loads of freakish stories that, while probably untrue, proved all to a fault believable.
But it was the unsavoury allegations of child molestation that, perhaps unhappily, became to define him.
In the early 1990s, his career scarce survived allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a young boy.
In 2003, he was charged with child molestation and faced an ugly test and all manner of sordid accusations. He was acquitted, merely his public reputation was badly damaged.
Soon he was roaming the world, an object of scorn, mockery or both.
It's been a long and difficult road for the King of Pop. Is it over? Can he ever remedy the impairment done?
Perhaps we'll know in another 50 years.
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