Michael Jackson Dies at 50 After Cardiac Arrest, Reports Say
LOS ANGELES, June 25 - Michael Jackson, the pop star who sold hundreds of millions of records and defined an era of music and music video, died Thursday afternoon after being taken to a Los Angeles hospital in cardiac arrest.
By Sana Whitfield, Culture, Science & Life
· 2 min read
At a glance
- •According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, Jackson was pronounced dead at UCLA Medical Center.
- •An autopsy is scheduled for Friday, and the family has said it believes he died of cardiac arrest but that the cause will not be confirmed until then.
- •Jackson had been preparing for a series of 50 comeback concerts at London's O2 Arena, set to begin in July.
- •The news spread first through entertainment website TMZ, which reported it shortly before major news outlets confirmed it.
The short answer
LOS ANGELES, June 25 - Michael Jackson, the pop star who sold hundreds of millions of records and defined an era of music and music video, died Thursday afternoon after being taken to a Los Angeles hospital in cardiac arrest. He was 50. According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, Jackson was pronounced dead at UCLA Medical Center.
LOS ANGELES, June 25 - Michael Jackson, the pop star who sold hundreds of millions of records and defined an era of music and music video, died Thursday afternoon after being taken to a Los Angeles hospital in cardiac arrest. He was 50.
According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, Jackson was pronounced dead at UCLA Medical Center. Paramedics were called to a rented home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood shortly after noon Pacific time, where he was reported to be not breathing. Doctors at the hospital tried to revive him for more than an hour. He was taken to the hospital with a large crowd of reporters and fans gathering outside.
An autopsy is scheduled for Friday, and the family has said it believes he died of cardiac arrest but that the cause will not be confirmed until then. Police said robbery-homicide detectives were assigned to investigate, which is routine in high-profile cases.
Jackson had been preparing for a series of 50 comeback concerts at London's O2 Arena, set to begin in July. All 50 dates sold out within hours when tickets went on sale in March. He had been rehearsing for the shows at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The news spread first through entertainment website TMZ, which reported it shortly before major news outlets confirmed it. The sudden surge of traffic slowed or briefly knocked out several sites, including parts of Twitter. Google said some Google News users had trouble reaching results because its systems briefly mistook the flood of searches for an automated attack.
Fans began gathering within minutes outside the hospital, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and at his Neverland Ranch in California. "Thriller," released in 1982, remains the best selling album of all time.
Jackson began his career as a child with his brothers in the Jackson 5. As a solo artist he won 13 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. His life in recent years was marked by legal troubles, financial problems, and intense tabloid attention.
Tributes began arriving within hours from fellow musicians and fans around the world, many posting on Twitter and Facebook.
Jackson is survived by three children, Prince Michael, Paris, and Prince Michael II, known as Blanket.
Sources
- 01Brother says cardiac arrest was likely cause of death (AP), Honolulu Advertiserhonoluluadvertiser.com
- 02Michael Jackson tickets for This Is It concert series sell out in hours, TicketNewsticketnews.com
- 03Death of Michael Jackson, Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Corrections
No corrections have been made to this article.
About the reporter
Culture, Science & Life Reporter, Trestlewire
I started a science blog in 2005, back when that was a slightly embarrassing thing to admit at parties, mostly to complain about how badly sleep studies got summarized in the papers. It turned into a job. I have been writing about culture and the science of everyday life ever since, through the arrival of social media, the smartphone, the wellness boom, and roughly four hundred viral productivity hacks.
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