The THRILLer is gone

They say that deaths of celebrities come in threes. Earlier this week, we had the passing of Ed McMahon, longtime sidekick of Johnny Carson, pitchman for Publisher's Clearing House, and one-time host of Star Search, a predecessor of Mega-hit American Idol. McMahon was 86 and had been ill for a while, so his death didn't come as a total surprise.

The second death, Farrah Fawcett, one-time star of Charlie's Angels and a pin-up girl on probably the best selling poster of all time, was announced yesterday morning. Her death also didn't come as a surprise, as she had been battling cancer for quite a while and, heroically made a film of her battle which aired just a few weeks ago on national television. Her long-time lover, Ryan O'Neal was with the 62 year old beauty when she passed.

The third death, however, shocked just about everyone. Michael Jackson, one of the biggest stars of the music industry in the last 30 years, died unexpectedly yesterday afternoon. The gloved one, which he was sometimes referred to, was only 50 years old and apparently died from cardiac arrest. If this initial cause of death turns out to be true, I will have something in common with Michael - besides, of course, my first name. At 53, I too died of Cardiac arrest. Fortunately, I was resuscitated. Michael Jackson, obviously was not.

Cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack. It is when your heart, instead of following it's normal electrical "beat" motion, simply quivers - then stops. A heart attack is when an artery becomes blocked - by a clot - shutting off the oxygen supply to other parts of the body. Cardiac arrest is fatal in almost 90% of cases - primarily because treatment is not begun soon enough to get the heart started. "Attacks" can also be fatal, of course, but not nearly as often. The preceding is, obviously, layman's terms but, hopefully, you get the idea. I know a little bit about each, simply because when you experience these things and survive them, you learn about them.

Anywho - the passing of Jackson was indeed a shocker. Anyone who watched the Motown 25th Anniversary Special on TV became an instant fan of Michael Jackson that night. It was an amazing show, made incredible by his performance of Billie Jean. That was our introduction to the incredible dance move called the "Moon walk". The crowd, like those millions of us watching at home, simply went wild. We knew that he could dance, but we had never, ever seen anything quite like that. It was otherworldly. I remember my mouth dropping open and looking over at my wife, whose mouth was in the same state.

The Thriller album, as well as the video, which played on the relatively new MTV, was unbelievable too. We, like just about everyone we knew bought that album, and had to fight our kids as to who would listen to it. We watched the "Thriller" video so many times on MTV it wasn't even funny. Everyone tried to learn how to do the Moon Walk. But no one could do it like Michael.

A few years later, his life started becoming weird though. The young, good-looking black kid, started having strange pictures appear - him with a chimp, named Bubbles, that he adopted. Then a photo of him supposedly asleep in a hypo-baric chamber. Next, his facial features started changing. Finally, he began to turn white.

His career fading, and his appearance getting increasingly odd, Michael, married Lisa-Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley - which many considered to be a P.R. stunt. Not surprisingly, the marriage ended rather quickly. Michael then married a nurse and became father to two children.

His saga became even more muddled with charges of child molestation - one where he settled with the young boys parents for a reported $4 millions; the other in court where he was acquitted.

An incredibly gifted performer, The King of Pop, who was adored across the world will thrill no more. The shame of it is that his legacy was tarnished by his oddities and suspect behavior.

Old Fart Mike