He was a tragically divided man: blessed with astonishing musical and physical talent, but so psychologically impaired that he turned himself into a fragile freak, haunted by charges of pedophilia. Thus passes one of the most extraordinary figures of our popular culture, Michael Jackson, who died last Thursday at 50.

Mr. Jackson was aptly called the “King of Pop.” He sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide, starting at age 11, when he was the unforgettable and soulful lead singer of the hit group The Jackson 5. In the 1980s, he pumped out a string of catchy and iconic hits, capped by the landmark Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. With his dazzling and innovative footwork on stage and videos — marked by his famous backward “moonwalk,” breathtaking spins and tip-toe stops — he established himself as one of the greatest dancers in American popular culture since Fred Astaire.

But it was all too much. A man who had sacrificed his childhood to grueling work in the entertainment industry, he seemed determined to carry his childhood bizarrely into adulthood. He dressed in costumes reminiscent of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper uniforms, spoke in a wispy, high-pitched voice, and bought a $17 mansion that he named Neverland, after the imaginary island in Peter Pan, adding an amusement park, a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles and statues of E.T.

With vast cash to spend, he bought the Beatles’ song catalogue by deftly outmaneuvering his supposed friend Paul McCartney, with whom he had teamed up on some hits. Then he went to work on his own body. The handsome black man somehow became white, and plastic surgeons whittled and sharpened his nose to the point that it could have sliced cheese. He slept with boys — innocently, he said — and notoriously dangled his baby son over a hotel balcony, to the horror of spectators below. He successfully fought off child-molestation charges in a 2005 trial, showing up in court once in his pajamas.

Having gone through vast amounts of money, and never able to recapture the success of Thriller, he was left in the end fighting off creditors and planning a comeback concert series beginning in London this summer. But his health was poor, and he died before he could return to the stage.

It was a sad end for a troubled musical genius.