Michael Jackson dead at 50

In order for promoters to get insurance for the London shows, Jackson underwent a four-hour physical with an independent doctor this spring. Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, the promoter, said the medical screening uncovered "no issues whatsoever."

Word of Jackson's death ricocheted around the nation. In Gary, Ind., outside his modest childhood home, fans formed a prayer circle. In New York, fans moonwalked outside the legendary Apollo Theater, where Jackson performed when he was 9. According to the Associated Press, so many people tried to verify Jackson's death that Google's computers interpreted the simultaneous searches for "Michael Jackson" as an automated attack.

As the night wore on Thursday, authorities pleaded with fans and onlookers to avoid UCLA Medical Center, to no avail. A large crowd, including some people wearing costumes similar to Jackson's performance outfits, gathered. Across the street, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house blasted Jackson's music. A group of young girls sobbed, blocking an emergency room driveway until police ushered them aside.

The crowd continued to swell as authorities flew Jackson's body from the hospital to the nearby coroner's office by helicopter -- an event that was televised live.

"Michael lived a tortured life," said Tommy Mottola, who oversaw Jackson's career for 16 years as head of Sony Music. "With his successes came all the pressures. . . . Imagine living with that stress on a minute-to-minute, day-by-day basis. And that's going on in life from the age of 5 or 6 to 50. It's almost shocking he made it through this long."

Jackson's comeback, Mottola said, represented "a very important platform for him to bridge the old and new." But Jackson also needed the comeback to reverse the damage done by years of excessive spending and little work. He has not toured since 1997 or released a new album since 2001, but he has continued to live like a megastar.

"For the first time, he had a big financial base behind him," said Tohme R. Tohme, an orthopedic surgeon-turned-businessman who was once Jackson's spokesman and confidant.