Arnold Klein, the Beverly Hills dermatologist infamous for his decades-spanning friendship with Michael Jackson, has died in Palm Springs, California, of natural causes, according to CBS Los Angeles. He was 70.
Known as the “King of Collagen,” Klein treated a starry array of A-list clientele over the years—his Web site included testimonials from Dustin Hoffman, Larry Ellison, and David Geffen. In 1985, Geffen and Elizabeth Taylor helped Klein establish the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
Notorious for courting publicity and friendships with celebrities, Klein met Jackson in 1983—eventually diagnosing him with lupus and treating him for the skin-pigment disorder vitiligo. Of their odd, long-lasting friendship, Carrie Fisher wrote in her book Shockaholic, “They each had something that the other desperately coveted. Arnie wanted to be friends … with the biggest star on the planet … and Michael wanted access to the farthest reaches of the medical community 24–7.”
Klein became further entangled in Jackson’s personal life in the 1990s, when he asked his medical assistant Debbie Rowe to watch after the pop star. Rowe would go on to bear two of Jackson’s children, Prince and Paris, who grew up slightly resembling Klein with their dark features. Over the years, “Arnie,” as he was known to friends, entertained speculation that he was the biological father of Jackson’s eldest children, telling Larry King, “Once [I donated] to a sperm bank. . . . To the best of my knowledge, I’m not the father.”
After Jackson’s death in 2009, Klein was subpoenaed by the California Medical Board and reportedly investigated by the D.E.A. for allegedly overprescribing Demerol to the late pop star. Although another one of Jackson’s doctors, Conrad Murray, was found guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of Jackson, Klein’s practice suffered because of the damning publicity and led to the dermatologist declaring bankruptcy.
In 2012, Klein posted on Facebook, “I have survived the Murray trial (which was an absolute hoax), Botox lawsuit, my nurse’s marriage, and my bankruptcy. To all those who have imitated and will imitate me I wish you great luck I will only get better!”
To read Mark Seal’s 2012 Vanity Fair feature on Klein, click here.
