Hard to top Michael Jackson, but I’ll go with the guy for whom the term “teen idol” was literally coined: Ricky Nelson.

He started out acting alongside his real-life parents on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet when he was 8 years old. He began his career as a rock and pop singer at 17 in 1957, and by 1973 he had scored 53 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Although in his late 30s his career began to drop off, he continued to record and tour into his 40s, and retained a dedicated fan base.

It was while on tour on New Year’s Eve, 1985, that Nelson’s plane crashed in Texas, killing him, his fiancee Helen Blair, and all five members of his band; only the pilots survived the crash. He was 45.

Ricky’s twin sons, Gunnar and Matthew, would become teen idols themselves in the 80s with their glam metal band Nelson, and his daughter Tracy was a popular actress in the 80s and 90s as well.