Michael Jackson: 100 facts about the king of pop

1. Michael Jackson's favourite animated character was Pinocchio

2. When he was a child his favourite books included Rip Van Winkle and The Old Man and the Sea

3. Michael Jackson was very ticklish

4. Saint Vincent, an island in the Caribbean, once issued Michael Jackson stamps

5. The singer once owned a boa constrictor called “Muscles”

6. As a youngster he used to put spiders in sister La Toyah’s bed

7. He played a scarecrow in The Wiz, a movie version of the Wizard of Oz

8. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for himself and one as part of the Jackson Five)

9. Quincy Jones nicknamed him “smelly” – a slang term similar to “funky”

10. Jackson described his own voice on early Jackson 5 records as “like Minnie Mouse”

11. He was a big fan of The Three Stooges

12. He is an Exeter City fan

13. He had two llamas called Louis and Lola

14. Thriller spent 37 weeks at number one in the US Billboard chart.

15. In 1984 he won eight Grammy’s – the joint highest amount ever won by one person in a single year

16. He gave his first public performance at the age of 5 singing Climb Every Mountain

17. He had eight brothers and sisters

18. His marriage to Lisa-Marie Presley lasted only 19 months

19. Jackson paid $47 million for the publishing rights to the Beatles back catalogue in 1985 and sold a share of to Sony in 1995 for $95 million

20. His middle name was Joseph

21. He was born on Aug 29, 1958

22. At the Brit Awards in 1996 Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker took exception to his bombastic performance of Earth Song and ran on to the stage

23. Jackson was very fond of Mexican food

24. In 1993 Jackson’s dermatologist said he had a rare skin disease called vitiligo, which causes sufferers to lose pigmentation in their skin

25. Thriller is the world’s best-selling record of all time with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide

26. Two of his other albums – Bad and Dangerous – are also among the world’s best-selling records

27. He popularised dance moves including the robot and the moonwalk

28. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice

29. He won 13 Grammy Awards

30. Billie Jean was the first video by a black artist to air on MTV.