Michael Jackson dead at 50

Jackson -- who most famously lived in Santa Barbara County at his Neverland Ranch, named for the island where Peter Pan and the Lost Boys were in no danger of growing up -- had taken up residence in a seven-bedroom estate in Holmby Hills, which he was renting for $100,000 a month.

He had come to Los Angeles to rehearse for 50 sold-out concerts at London's O2 Arena, a run of shows that was scheduled to kick off July 13 and had been dubbed "This Is It." The concerts were to have been the start of an ambitious career revival designed to begin wiping out Jackson's staggering debt -- he owed at least $400 million and would have earned $1 million a night -- and return the singer to cultural relevancy.

Jackson's backers envisioned the London appearances as an audition of sorts for a reboot that would go on to include a world tour, movies, a Graceland-like museum, new music and revues in Macau and Las Vegas.

Those close to Jackson have said he had been working diligently to get in shape for his comeback. A year ago, he was gaunt and used a wheelchair, but recently he'd been exercising with a trainer in addition to daylong rehearsals with dancers half his age.

Kenny Ortega, the force behind "High School Musical" and "Dirty Dancing," was brought on as the concerts' director. Jackson was consumed with the project, Ortega said, personally approving every costume and every bit of choreography. Jackson was also thrilled by the notion of keeping the details of the tour secret.

"He was so in love with this project," Ortega said. "When I looked into his eyes, they looked great. . . . Michael was sincerely happy."

Rehearsals were to wrap up early next week. Ortega was leading one of the final rehearsals Thursday afternoon when he received a phone call confirming Jackson's death, which he then revealed to the tour performers.

"People fell to their knees," he said.

Johnny Caswell, a principal at Centerstaging, the Burbank soundstage where Jackson had been rehearsing, watched many of the run-throughs and said he was "absolutely shocked" by the performer's death. Jackson, he said, was "very frail" but approached the rehearsals -- including one the night before his death that witnesses at Staples Center called triumphant -- with boundless energy. "He was working hard," Caswell said.