Bill Bray, portrayed by KeiLyn Durrel Jones in 'Michael,' worked as Michael Jackson's lead bodyguard for multiple decades
Credit: PA Images via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Actor KeiLyn Durrel Jones portrays Michael Jackson’s longtime security guard Bill Bray in the new movie Michael
- Bray began working for Jackson when he was a child and still performing with The Jackson 5; he died at 80 in 2005
- Michael is in theaters now
One of the most visible characters in the new Michael Jackson biopic may be unfamiliar to some of the singer's fans.
In the new movie Michael, actor KeiLyn Durrel Jones portrays Bill Bray, a security guard who worked with Jackson — the world-famous pop star who died in 2009 at 50 — from the time Jackson was a child performing with his brothers in The Jackson 5 into the 1990s.
In the movie, Bray is portrayed as a near-constant physical force in Jackson's life from an early age after his father Joe Jackson hires Bray and stays by Michael's side as he grows up and eventually breaks free from his father's management.
Credit: John Nacion/Getty; PA Images via Getty
Little is known about Bray in real life. A 1989 Rolling Stone article described Bray as Jackson's "top bodyguard, as well as one of his closest confidants" and noted, as the movie depicts, that Bray began working for Jackson while he was still with the Jackson 5.
The outlet also noted in that piece that Bray declined to be interviewed, but reported that Bray had taken Jackson to the doctor when he was ill, advised him on his business deals and oversaw "all safety procedures" related to the singer's life.
"Those near Jackson say that Bray is his alter ego and surrogate father and that Bray has become involved in every part of the singer’s life," Rolling Stone reported at the time.
Bray died at 80 in 2005, according to a Reuters report that credited Jackson's publicist Raymone Bain with making the announcement.
“Michael is very, very, very saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Bray, who was a longtime friend and mentor to him and very trusted adviser to him,” Bain said at the time. Reuters' report on Bray's death also noted that Bray and Michael "had a falling out in the mid-1990s for reasons that were never made public."
In 2004, Fox News reported that Bray had not communicated with anyone in the Jackson family "for at least five years" and noted that Joe Jackson originally hired Bray to "keep Michael out of trouble and harm's way."
"Michael and Bill were so close, he was like his real father," Bray's wife Gail told the outlet at that time. "That's what he called him. There was one time at the beginning when Michael finished a show, he would run and jump in Bill's arms when he got off stage."
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Jackson was in the news at that time regarding allegations of child molestation that he and his estate have repeatedly denied over the years. "I don't want to say anything that would hurt Michael," Bray told Fox News at the time.
In 2019, TMZ published a handwritten note Jackson purportedly wrote to Bray around 1992. The outlet wrote at that time that the note had been put up for auction.
"Bill, it's been a long long road we have traveled throughout the years, concert tours, meeting dignitaries, kings and queens… touring around the world twice, making people happy through the gift and love of music. I'm coming of age now and realize the importance of true love," the letter reads.
"Joseph never ever had time for me; he only saw me as a way for him to make money. And as you know, mother was a perfect mother, but I never was with her," it continued. "My childhood was on stage away from mother. What I'm trying simply trying to say is thank you for being a father. I don't know what would have happened to me if you were not around. I love you. M.J."
Credit: Glen Wilson/Lionsgate
J. Randy Taraborrelli, the journalist and biographer who wrote the book Michael Jackson — The Magic, the Madness, the Whole Story, told PEOPLE recently that Bill "was a fantastic person" who was loyal to Michael.
"He was such a great guy. Everyone loved him, and man, he loved Michael, and all he wanted to do was protect Michael in the same way that Joseph did," Taraborrelli, 70, said. "Everybody in Michael's life wanted to do the same thing, which was to protect him."
Michael is in theaters now.
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