The pop icon passed away in 2009, with family members including Jermaine Jackson and La Toya Jackson publicly paying their respects.
Music stars such as Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Pharrell Williams and Chris Brown have all taken to Twitter, with Pharrell writing, “We’ll always remember the legends. Happy birthday to the King”.
See a collection of tweets below.
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Michael Jackson originally wanted to play Jar Jar Binks in Stars Wars.
Actor Ahmed Best recently spoke to Vice about the much-hated role, with the character widely regarded as one of the most annoying characters of film history. In the interview, Best elaborated on comments he made on Reddit last year about Michael Jackson wanting to play Binks.
“That’s what George told me,” he said. “Me, Natalie Portman, and George’s kids – we were at Wembley Arena at Michael Jackson’s concert. We were taken backstage and we met Michael. There was Michael and Lisa Marie [Presley]. George introduced me as ‘Jar Jar’ and I was like, ‘That’s kind of weird’. Michael was like, ‘Oh. OK.’ I thought, ‘What is going on?'”
He continued: “After Michael had driven off, we all go back up to a big afterparty. I’m having a drink with George and I said, ‘Why did you introduce me as Jar Jar?’ He said, ‘Well, Michael wanted to do the part but he wanted to do it in prosthetics and makeup like ‘Thriller’.’ George wanted to do it in CGI. My guess is ultimately Michael Jackson would have been bigger than the movie, and I don’t think he wanted that”.
As soon as reports started emerging that Michael Jackson had suffered a fatal heart attack, fellow celebrities and fans started to pay tribute to the King of Pop on Twitter.