The new Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael,” is filled with music-world royalty.
There’s Quincy Jones, Gladys Knight and Berry Gordy. Though, somehow, not the Supremes diva Diana Ross. Hers is one of several notable absences. And there are no friends like Elizabeth Taylor and Macaulay Culkin, and no Janet Jackson.
But the Jackson family is otherwise well represented: Jaafar Jackson, Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew and the son of the former Jackson 5 member Jermaine Jackson, is making his acting debut as his famous uncle. The film also stars Colman Domingo (“Euphoria”) as Michael Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson; Miles Teller (“Whiplash”), who plays John Branca, Jackson’s lawyer and manager; and Nia Long (“Boyz N the Hood”) as the pop legend’s mother, Katherine.
The film, which begins in 1966, when Michael Jackson was 8, covers his childhood and early years with the Jackson 5 through his stardom as a solo artist during the 1980s. It was made with the blessing of his estate, with the estate’s executors, Branca and John McClain, serving as producers.
Here’s a guide to who’s who.
Berry Gordy (Played by Larenz Tate)
It was Berry Gordy, who, while leading the Motown Records label he’d founded, plucked Michael and four of his brothers from obscurity and went on to mentor them to stardom as the Jackson 5.
“Once I saw them, I rushed out with my video camera to start taping them because I knew that they were something so special, mainly because of the lead singer, 9-year-old Michael Jackson,” Gordy told NPR in 2009, shortly after Jackson’s death at 50. “It was just so obvious to me that he was a star.
Signing young siblings was a risk to be sure, but despite some initial hesitation, Gordy, who already had stars like Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross under contract, recognized their potential. In 1969, Gordy moved the Jacksons from Gary, Ind., to Los Angeles and assembled a group of songwriters and record producers he called the Corporation to create hits for them.
Suzanne de Passe (Laura Harrier)
Gordy may have taken the risk of signing the Jacksons, but Suzanne de Passe, who was then working as an assistant for Gordy at Motown Records, was the group’s first champion.
After the Motown singer and producer Bobby Taylor introduced her to the Jacksons in the late 1960s, de Passe persuaded Gordy not only to see them for an audition, but also to sign them. She went on to manage the group’s development, including their choreography, set list, wardrobe and career strategy.
“Mr. Gordy put me in charge of everything having to do with them except the actual producing and writing of the records,” she told Variety in 2022.
She would go on to develop other talent including Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Rick James and Teena Marie, and she later formed her own production company, de Passe Jones Entertainment. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.
Walter Yetnikoff (Mike Myers)
Walter Yetnikoff, who was the president of CBS Records at the time, signed the Jacksons to his label in 1975 and served as a mentor for Michael Jackson during the intense pressure of the “Thriller” era, as the pop star navigated his changing image.
“Michael liked to call me his Good Father,” Yetnikoff said in the 2004 memoir he wrote with David Ritz, “Howling at the Moon: The Odyssey of a Monstrous Music Mogul in an Age of Excess.”
When MTV refused to play Jackson’s video for “Billie Jean” in 1983 — the network believed a Black artist was not a good fit for its white demographic — Yetnikoff said he forced the network’s hand by threatening to pull all CBS artists, who included heavyweights like Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Billy Joel. MTV executives disputed his account.
Yetnikoff, a powerful, often abrasive man, was navigating his own battles with addiction. The New York Times noted in his obituary that he “lived the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll life more indulgently than many of his stars did.” He died in 2021 at age 87 from bladder cancer.
John Branca (Miles Teller)
As Jackson’s longtime lawyer — and now the co-executor of his estate — Branca has spent the better part of nearly five decades making money moves for the singer.
He represented Jackson on and off for nearly 30 years beginning in 1980, when he helped the star move away from his father’s management. He would go on to help Jackson buy ATV Music, which owned the rights to most of the Beatles catalog, for about $47.5 million in 1985.
Branca’s relationship with Jackson wasn’t always smooth sailing, though: The singer fired and rehired Branca more than once, ultimately bringing him back on in the final weeks of his life in 2009. Branca became the co-executor, with the music executive John McClain, of Jackson’s estate.
Branca, who also is chairman of the Michael Jackson Company, has been a key figure in managing a number of posthumous Jackson projects, including “Michael Jackson ONE,” a Cirque du Soleil show that has been running for the last 13 years in Las Vegas, and the Broadway musical “MJ.”
Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson)
The professional partnership between Jackson and the composer and producer Quincy Jones led to the records “Off the Wall,” “Bad” and “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time. Their personal relationship was equally productive — at least initially — with Jackson regarding Jones as a father figure and mentor.
After the release of “Bad” in 1987, though, the two had a falling out, and Jackson took greater control over his career. Jones later sued Jackson’s estate over royalties after the star’s death. Jones, who won 28 Grammys during his career, died in 2024 at 91 from pancreatic cancer.
Gladys Knight (Liv Symone)
The singer Gladys Knight and Jackson shared what she has described as a close relationship, saying she felt akin to his older sister. They met in the late 1960s in the early days of the Jackson 5 and in the ensuing decades socialized, toured together and spent time together with their children.
“I still miss him every day,” she told The Mirror in 2022.
Don King (Deon Cole)
Don King is best known as a boxing promoter who arranged Mike Tyson bouts, as well as the “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila” fights in the 1970s that featured Muhammad Ali.
In 1984, after “Thriller” gripped the world, King met with Michael Jackson’s father without the star’s knowledge to create the Victory Tour with the Jackson 5. King, who is now 94, lives in Florida and still manages fighters.
Bill Bray (KeiLyn Durrel Jones)
Bill Bray was not only Jackson’s longtime head of security, but he was also a close friend. He began working with Jackson in the 1970s, in the Jackson 5 days, and continued until his retirement in 1996.
Jackson wrote in his 1988 memoir, “Moonwalk,” that “Bill is very careful and immensely professional in his job, but he doesn’t worry about things after the fact. He travels with me everywhere and occasionally he’s my only companion on short trips. I can’t imagine life without Bill.”
Jackson issued a statement after Bray’s death in 2005 at 80, saying he was “deeply saddened by the passing of my dear and longtime friend.”
