Who’s Still Alive in the Jackson Family?
Tito Jackson, older brother of Michael and the guitarist of the ’70s teen pop idols Jackson 5, died from a heart attack on Sept. 15, at age 70. Born Toriano Jackson in Gary, Indiana, in 1953, Tito was featured on such classic Jackson 5 hits as “Rockin’ Robin” and “I Want You Back,” and still performed as the Jacksons with original Jackson 5 members Jackie and Marlon Jackson, and his son, Taryll Jackson. He also released several solo albums, most recently 2021’s Under Your Spell.
Tito is the second member of the Jackson 5 to pass, after King of Pop Michael died in 2009. Father Joe Jackson also passed in 2018.
Where are the other Jacksons today?
Jermaine
Kwaku Alson / © A&E / courtesy everett collection
Born in 1954, Jermaine was the secondary vocalist in the Jackson 5. He had a solo hit in 1972 with the song “Daddy’s Home,” which went gold. When the band left Motown Records in 1976 to record albums for Epic as the Jacksons, Jermaine — who had recently married Hazel Gordy, daughter of Motown founder Berry Gordy — stayed with Motown; he was replaced in the group by brother Randy.
As a solo artist, Jermaine had nine Billboard Top 30 singles in the ’70s and ’80s. In 1984, he and Michael teamed up for two hits: Michael provided additional vocals for Jermaine’s “Tell Me I’m Not Dreamin’ (Too Good to Be True),” and the pair both provided background vocals for Rockwell’s Top 5 hit, “Somebody’s Watching Me.”
After a fairly quiet 1990s, Jermaine began to pop up on reality TV shows in the 2000s, including Celebrity Big Brother, CMT’s Gone Country, The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty and, most recently, Celebrity Wife Swap in 2014.
Jackie
Kwaku Alson / © A& E / courtesy everett collection
Oldest Jackson brother Jackie, who was born in 1951, sang tenor vocals in the Jackson 5, and cowrote “Torture,” the 1984 hit off the Jacksons’ Victory album. In 1985, Jackie, alongside Tito, Randy, Marlon and LaToya, joined Michael to participate in “We Are the World.”
Jackie began working as a session musician and producer in the ’80s, after Michael officially left the Jacksons in 1984. He released two solo albums, one in 1973 and one in 1989. In 2001, he and the other Jacksons participated in Michael’s 30th anniversary performance at Madison Square Garden.
Jackie spent the 2000s running two small record labels, and in 2009, appeared alongside Tito, Jermaine and Marlon in The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty, which ran on A&E for one season.
Randy
Photo by Joshua Gates Weisberg-Pool/Getty Images
The youngest Jackson brother, Randy, born in 1961, joined the Jackson 5 when Jermaine left the band in 1976. Randy also participated as a backing musician in Michael’s 1979 album Off the Wall, as well as Lionel Richie‘s 1985 Dancing on the Ceiling. Randy has had numerous legal troubles, including a battery charge; in 2001, he pled guilty to bankruptcy fraud. Today, he is a co-partner with sister Janet on her independent record label, Rhythm Nation Records.
Marlon
Kwaku Alson / © A &E / courtesy everett collection
Born in 1957, Marlon was a member of the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons, and released one solo album, 1987’s Baby Tonight. After music, Marlon became involved in real estate, and then TV programming, cocreating religious network the Major Broadcasting Cable Network in 1999. Later renamed the Black Family Channel, it was sold to the Gospel Channel in 2007. In 2009, he appeared alongside Tito, Jermaine and Jackie in The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty, which ran on A&E for one season. Today, he runs the nonprofit organization The Study Peace Foundation.
Janet
The youngest Jackson, Janet has had the second-most music business success of anyone in the family, with multiple No. 1 albums, including 1986’s Control, 1989’s Rhythm Nation 1814, 1993’s Janet and 1997’s Velvet Rope. One of the most highly paid musicians of all time, Janet also had success as an actress, starring in films like 1993’s Poetic Justice. After her infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at her 2004 Super Bowl halftime show performance with Justin Timberlake, she was allegedly blacklisted by former CBS head Les Moonves, and saw a subsequent decrease in radio airplay and airings of her videos on TV. In 2015, she founded her independent record label, Rhythm Nation Records, which she runs with brother Randy.
LaToya
Dale Berman / © TLC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
Born in 1956, LaToya appeared on episodes of the 1976 variety show The Jacksons and released multiple solo albums, none of which were major hits. She is best known for breaking away from the Jackson family, posing for Playboy in 1989 and writing 1991’s LaToya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family, which accused father Joe of physical abuse. In 1996, she left an abusive marriage and reconciled with the Jacksons.
LaToya released multiple albums in the 2000s and appeared on several reality shows, including Celebrity Big Brother and Armed & Famous. In the 2010s, she appeared multiple times on The Celebrity Apprentice, as well as on her own show, Life With LaToya. In 2019, she appeared on the U.S. version of The Masked Singer, and has gone to appear in the Spanish and Australian versions of the show.
Rebbie
The eldest Jackson sibling, Rebbie — whose birth name is Maureen — was born in 1950. Often serving as a babysitter to her younger siblings, Rebbie began performing live with them in 1974. She released her solo album Centipede in 1984, which had several tracks written by Michael, and which cracked the Billboard Top 100. She released two more albums in the ’80s and a song for the Free Willy 2 soundtrack in 1995. She released an additional solo album in 1998.
Though Rebbie announced she was recording a new album in 2011, no songs have been released.
Katherine
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Cirque du Soleil
Born in 1930, Katherine is the mother of the Jackson clan, marrying Joe Jackson in 1949. She gave birth to 10 children, though one, Brandon, died at birth in 1957. Though she filed divorce papers to end her marriage to Joe twice, she withdrew them both times, and remained married to him until his death in 2018.
In 2009, following Michael’s death, she was named guardian of his two children, Prince and Paris; in 2012, that guardianship was suspended as allegations flew that she was being held captive by members of the Jackson extended family, who had financial complaints regarding how Michael’s estate was handled. The guardianship was later restored, with the stipulation that she share it with grandson TJ Jackson.
Where Are They Now? Child Stars and Teen Idols
June 2024
What happened to those teen idols and child stars we swayed to, swooned over and watched as they grew up (while we grew up as well)?
Buy This Issue