And so the King of Pop has left the building for good. We here at Movie Talk would like to pay our filmic tribute to Michael Jackson with this recap of his quirky movie career, which allowed him to brush shoulders with some big (and some rather small) names in the industry:
In 1978, Sidney Lumet directed the musical The Wiz, an African American version of The Wizard of Oz, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael as Scarecrow:
In 1983, John Landis directed the mega-hit music video to the mega-hit single Thriller. Landis also directed the music video for Black or White in 1991.
In 1986, Francis Ford Coppola made a rather weird musical sci-fi short for Disney called Captain Eo – the captain being… you guessed it:
In 1987, Martin Scorsese directed the much-spoofed music video for hit single Bad:
In 2002 Michael made a brief appearance in Men in Black II as Agent M:
Watch Men In Black II on G.O.L.D tomorrow at 21.50.
This role was spoofed in 2004 in adventure comedy Miss Cast Away where Michael played Agent M.J. (from the comfort of his own library):
And like any decent celebrity, Michael also made an appearance in The Simpsons, in an episode called ‘Stark Raving Dad’. He voiced bricklayer Leon Kompowsky, who thinks he is Michael Jackson and therefore lives at the New Bedlam Rest Home for the Emotionally Interesting.
And that he certainly was!
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