Michael Jackson, the iconic entertainer whose music and stage performances thrilled generations, died today in Los Angeles after suffering cardiac arrest at his home. He was 50.

Jackson collapsed in his rental Bel Air home in California, around 12:20 Pacific time, and it is believed to be a staffer who called 911. A fire department ambulance arrived and found Jackson without a pulse. They tried to resuscitate him and transported him by ambulance to UCLA Medical Center, giving him CPR on the way. Jackson had already fallen into a coma; he never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead around 2:30 L. A. time.

Jackson was preparing for a major comeback after spending years in isolation. Earlier this year, he announced a series of concerts in London--a 50-show performance in the O2 Arena. It was to be his first major tour since 1997.

Brian Oxman, a Jackson family lawyer, described the scene inside UCLA Medical Center Wednesday afternoon: siblings LaToya, Jermaine, and Randy, "all sobbing alone in a room by themselves. It's something I will never forget." Father Joe Jackson, he said, was in Las Vegas at the time and on his way to L. A.

His voice shaking, Oxman went on to say he and many of Jackson's relatives had been worried about him for quite some time, worried that he would one day die. Oxman said Jackson had been surrounded by enablers.

"Because of medications he has been on, this family has been trying months and months and months to take care of Michael," said Oxman. "The people who have been surrounding him have been enabling him. If you think the Anna Nicole case was an abuse, it was nothing in comparison to what we have seen taking place in Michael Jackson's life.

"This was something that I feared and something I warned about," Oxman continued, describing Michael in "very fine" physical condition. "I can't be sure...but where there is smoke, there is fire. This is a case of abuse of medications, unless there is some other cause I don't know about."

The Los Angeles Coroner will perform an autopsy.

Michael Jackson's London shows were set to begin July 8. It was billed the "This Is It" tour; he said the shows there would be his last in the city and, it was implied, possibly his last tour anywhere. The tickets sold out within hours. He had reportedly been getting in better shape with Lou Ferrigno to pump up and gain some weight before the concerts began. Jackson's last studio album was "Invincible" in 2001, and "Thriller"--which is worldwide, the best-selling album of all time with more than 100 million copies estimated sold--got its 25^th Anniversary re-issue in 2008.

"I love you," Jackson told tour fans during the tour announcement in March. "I really do. You have to know that I love you so much. Really, from the bottom of my heart."

Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958. He has three children: Paris Katherine, Prince Michael I (also known as Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr.) and Prince Michael II (nicknamed "Blanket"). His older two were by ex-wife Debbie Rowe; the third was by a woman whose identity he kept private but he said the boy was from a surrogate mother using his own sperm.