**FILE** In this Jan. 31, 1993 picture, Michael Jackson performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena, Calif. Jackson died in Los Angeles at age 50 on Thursday. (Associated Press)UPDATED:
Michael Jackson, the childhood sensation whose iconic singing and dance routines electrified America’s first music video generation and earned him the title “King of Pop,” died Thursday after collapsing at his California home. He was 50.
Mr. Jackson, one of the largest-selling artists of all time, was just a few weeks from launching a worldwide tour aimed at reviving his career after years of bizarre tabloid stories and an acquittal on child molestation charges.
Mr. Jackson was pronounced dead at about 2:26 p.m. PDT after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest, said Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office. The cause of death was not known and an autopsy would likely take place on Friday, he told Associated Press.
A few hours after Mr. Jackson’s death, a throng of media awaited a press conference from the Jackson family.
Mr. Jackson’s former producer and longtime collaborator Quincy Jones said he was shocked to hear of the music legend’s demise.
“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” Mr. Jones told TMZ.com. “For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words.”
Mr. Jackson was rushed to a hospital by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics Thursday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Capt. Steve Ruda said paramedics responded to a call at Jackson’s home around 12:26 p.m. He was not breathing when they arrived. The parademics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the Times.
According to the newspaper, paramedics were called to a home on the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard. Jackson rented the Bel Air home for $100,000 a month. It was described as a French chateau estate built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theater.
The home is about two minutes away from UCLA Medical Center.
The Guinness Book of World Records dubbed Mr. Jackson “The Most Successful Entertainer of All Time” in 2006.
“Its the most shocking death of an entertainment superstar since John Lennon in 1980,” Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper wrote.
Rev. Al Sharpton recounted his long relationship with Mr. Jackson on Thursday afternoon.
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Tom LoBianco has covered energy and environmental policy, including the climate change bill making its way through Congress. From 2007 to 2008, he covered Maryland politics from the Times’s Annapolis bureau. Tom hold’s a master’s degree in political science from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. He spent two and a ...
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