Rarely seen photos show David Gest and Michael Jackson before the extensive plastic surgery for which the two friends later became famous
Rarely seen photos of David Gest and Michael Jackson show the friends before the extensive plastic surgery for which they both became known.
Gest - who was found dead in a London hotel yesterday - has previously told how Jackson first convinced him to have plastic surgery, which he later regretted.
He met Jackson at Walton School in Panorama City, California, when Michael was 10 and he was 15.
The popularity of the Jackson 5 was spreading and Gest, a music obsessive, was keen to meet the young talent.
Gest became close friends with Tito and Michael lived with the Jackson family for some time as a teenager.
The photos of the pair are believed to have been taken when Jackson was in his early 20s and Gest was slightly older.
They show the friends joking around in a photo booth and posing for a picture with singer Paul Anka and Michael's brother Tito's ex-wife Dee Dee.
By this time, Michael had already had one nose job, reportedly after breaking his nose during a complex dance routine, but had not undergone the extensive work he had done in the late 80s.
Gest said that Jackson convinced him to have surgery on his face and he had a nose job and facelift in the early 1980s and a hair transplant in 1990.
He told ITV's Loose Women earlier this year: 'I had a facelift when I was very young because Michael Jackson said to me, "You've got to make yourself always look better".
'I thought to myself, "Oh I'll do this because Michael told me." What an idiot I was. I'm telling people be who you are, you do not need to do plastic surgery, it's the stupidest thing in the world.'
Another photo from the same year shows the pair with singer Paul Anka and Michael's sister-in-law Dee Dee
The pair, pictured in later life, underwent surgery at the hands of the same plastic surgeon in the 1980s
Gest later said of his friend: 'Michael was so concerned with looking good. He had great looks to start with and never needed to do anything, but the plastic surgery was an obsession.
'He took it too far, and I think he realised that later in life. The surgeon should never have done any more after the second nose-job but people wanted to keep him in the fold, and that was one of the big problems in his life.'
Gest was found dead at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf, London yesterday morning, aged 62. Police are treating his death as 'not suspicious'.
The former music producer, who made a reported £28million during his career in the US, had been rebuilding a career in the spotlight in Britain by starring in reality TV shows including I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here and Celebrity Big Brother.
Jackson was said to be glued to Gest's starring turn on ITV hit reality show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2006, in which he appeared alongside celebs including Myleene Klass and Jason Donovan.
Gest chose to settle in York, where he said he wanted to be buried.
In the late 1980s, the pair (pictured with Yoko Ono in 2001) had the more extensive facial surgery
Gest, who became famous after his marriage to Liza Minelli (left), had been building a showbusiness career in Britain in recent years with appearances on reality TV. Pictured, right, with Kym Marsh
He told the Yorkshire Post in 2014: 'It's my home and the most beautiful place in the world. You look at the Minster, the cobblestone streets, the history with the Vikings and the River Ouse running through.
'It also has the York Hog Roast. People come by and see me eating there and I tell them I'm having my turkey and my Yorkshire pudding, my stuffing, my crackling, my vegetables and my gravy and I'm loving every minute of it.'
Despite his starry credentials, Gest prided himself on being a man of the people.
He told the newspaper: 'I don't look at celebrity the way others look at it. I'm down to earth. People come up to me in the streets in York and I talk with everybody.
'I don't believe there's really a difference between any of us. We all pull down our pants to go to the bathroom.'
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