Michael Jackson

Throughout his long career, internationally acclaimed music superstar Michael Jacksonsporadically made film appearances as an actor, notably in his first starring role in The Wiz (1978), but he was best known for producing cutting-edge feature-film quality music videos such as "Thriller," "Billie Jean," and "Black or White." He also produced films for Disney virtual rides, the first of which was the extremely popular Francis Ford Coppola-directed Captain Eo (1985), which ran at Disney World in Orlando until 1997. Jackson also occasionally composed music and songs for movie soundtracks. He died of cardiac arrest in 2009, a couple of months before his 51st birthday. - Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide