Celebrity Casualties: Part 3 of 3

This is the final part of a 3-post case study on the unfortunate lives of celebrities who were once victims of emotional abuse.

I think we're nearly at a saturation point when it comes to hearing about this famous person, in wake of the tragic circumstances surrounding his recent death. It's probably safe to say that we're all acquainted with the basics of this man's story. But I saved this study for last because I think it's easily the standout case of a miserable history, a downward spiral, and all the potential in the world.

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in 1958 in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children in an African-American working class family that would soon move on to become one of the most famous families in music. Growing up, Michael was very close with his mother Katherine, but his father, Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson, was abusive from the onset of Michael's life. He reportedly took pleasure in tearing down all of his children, but saved nicknames like "big nose," "ugly face", and "monkey" for Michael, shattering his self-image - apparently for life. Hellbent on having his talented young sons become musical stars, Joe also physically abused him for executing the wrong dance moves during practices, and sometimes just at random. Michael was made to practice and rehearse everyday and never allowed time to play as a child. He was not even allowed to call his father "Dad"; Joe was strictly to be addressed as "Joe". Michael's elder brother Marlon recalls that Joe once held Michael upside down by one leg and "pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks". Joe would trip his sons, push them into walls, and took pleasure in frightening them. As Michael recalled, one night when he was asleep, his father climbed into his room through the window, screaming and wearing a monster mask in order to "teach his children not to leave the window open at night" - but he only succeeded in making Michael a very nervous child. Michael was so afraid of his father that sometimes he would vomit upon sight of him, and also cry himself to sleep from loneliness and depression. Katherine, though loving, was an accomplice to Joe's behavior. For fear of her husband, she did very little to defend her children from his tyranny.

Yet Michael's musical talent emerged, and by 1964 he joined his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a backup musician in their band The Jackson Brothers, sometimes providing backup dancing and vocals. When he assumed the lead vocals alongside his brother Jermaine, the group changed its name to The Jackson 5 and quickly went on to notoriety, touring stripclubs and night joints throughout the Midwest between 1966 and 1968. By 1972 the group was at the height of its fame, a household name, and topping the Billboard charts with songs like "I Want You Back," "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There", among several others. In 1978 Michael met Quincy Jones during production of his first feature film The Wiz, an African-American-cast Motown adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz", and together they produced Michael's first solo album Off The Wall in 1979 - one of Michael's greatest hit albums that generated a staggering amount of awards and royalties. Michael, however, was disappointed with his release and was determined to top that success.

His subsequent successes became too numerous to name. In 1982, Michael released Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. The music video for the title song also became the most recognizable, imitated, and wealth-generating music video of all time. On March 25, 1983, Michael astounded the world with his first public execution of the "moonwalk" during a television special featuring Motown music, and took his crown as an accomplished dancer. His wealth became so great that in 1985, Michael was able to purchase the catalog rights to all of the Beatles' music. Michael released the album Bad in 1987, his first autobiography Moonwalk in 1988, built the famous Neverland Ranch as his home in 1988, and was finally dubbed "the king of Pop". The album Dangerous was released in 1991, and gave one of the performances of his career at SuperBowl XXVII in 1993. In 1994, Michael married Lisa Marie Prestley, the daughter of rock icon Elvis Prestley - the couple divorced in 1996. In 1995, Michael released HIStory Begins and HIStory Continues, a 2-part collection of his greatest hits along with new songs, one including a hit song with his younger sister Janet Jackson. Blood on the Dance Floor, a collection of remixed songs, was released in 1997, and is still the best-selling album comprised of remixes in the world. His final new album release was Invincible in 2001.

Michael became the household name to put all other household names to shame, but evidence that his past still had a grip on him showed up in all areas of his life. During the filming of The Wiz it was reported that Michael accidentally broke his nose and arranged for rhinoplasty to fix the damage, but that the procedure left some problems and he required a second procedure. Michael confirmed this during a televised interview with Martin Bashir. However, a look at his photos throughout the years proves that his nose was more than corrected - it was all but removed as a result of several procedures. When his skin began to pale gradually from its rich chocolate color of birth in the mid-80s, Michael's publicity claimed that he had been diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus, which made him sensitive to sunlight and lightened his skin. In accordance, his forehead seemed to have been surgically lifted, his lips thinned, his cheekbones sculpted, and an artificial cleft was grooved into his chin. Michael was also alleged, at one point, to suffer from anorexia nervosa under the guise of wanting to keep a "dancer's body". He changed his hair to a sleek, dark and straight shoulder-length cut. He made friends with eccentric former starlets Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minelli, and famous child actor Macaulay Culkin. The critical point of Michael's ultimate fall came in 1999, when he was accused of sexually molesting one of the young boys he had grown accustomed to entertaining and befriending at his whimsical playground and home, Neverland Ranch - and being sued again in 2003 with a fresh claim that bankrupted him spiritually and financially. From then on, Michael lived in seclusion with his 3 young children Prince Michael, Paris-Michael Katherine, and Prince Michael II nicknamed "Blanket" by the media, who were birthed by surrogate mothers and what is still rumored to be Caucasian sperm donors. When he was finally reported to have succumbed to a prescription drug addiction in June of 2009, Michael had already evidently been living life as a shell of a human being.

There's way too much about Michael to fit all in a compact blog post like this, but I'd like to draw attention back to Michael's relationship with his father Joseph, because I really believe it explains most of his life choices. The memories of the physical abuse, of course, never left. But is it any wonder that Michael's nose disappeared over the years, when he was taunted as a child for having a large and typically African-descent nose? I don't mean to allege that his claims of vitiligo and lupus aren't true, because I was never even close to knowing Michael as a person - but is it any wonder that, having been teased as a child for being dark, Michael grew up to be one of the palest specimens of human flesh made public? Is it any wonder that, having been told he was ugly, his typically African-descent features all melted away as he aged? I don't claim to know the truth about the genetics of his children, but pictures of them in their youth show Michael's eldest son was actually dyed and dressed to look eerily similar to his old friend Macaulay Culkin. He seemed to have a penchant for befriending and marrying people who were the exact opposite of his genetic phenotype.

On another point, most child psychologists will agree that a child who is not allowed to grow in an environment where they can safely mature and engage in normal child behaviors - as Joe restricted Michael from doing - suffer greatly. When a child misses critical stages of child development, they experience emotional problems as adults. They also encounter conflict when they attempt to complete those stages in an adult world, because their behavior is often criticized, judged, viewed and labeled as deviant, often with tragic consciousness. Michael was labeled a pedophile, when I believe his understandable fear and distrust of adults led him to feel more comfortable with children. What he probably did not realize is that greedy, abusive adults were coaching some of the children he engaged with at Neverland Ranch. Thus, I believe he was betrayed and deeply wounded by this betrayal. Michael had to fight these public allegations and being targeted by very brutal, ignorant, and judgmental people who stood to gain from making the allegations stick, and it took a lot out of him.

Finally, one of Michael's most damaging memories of his father was the one where Joe frightened him at night with a mask. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Michael's obsession with costumes and masks may have stemmed from this. He's been photographed a numerous amount of times hiding in old man costumes, monster masks, and the famous movie short produced by Michael, Ghost, has him in several costumes - one which he's paraded in public before, among unknowing bystanders. I'm sure he never meant to scare anyone, but he went to masks as a way to disappear over any other route.

I strongly believe that Michael was a harmless, misunderstood, and caring human being. I also believe he died of a broken heart at age 50, firmly locked in his invisible cage.