John Branca

His mother, Barbara May Theresa Werle (1928–2013) was an entertainer and Harvest Moon Ball winner who danced on The Ed Sullivan Show and appeared in many Elvis Presley films.

She moved to Los Angeles when Branca was four to pursue her show business career.

Branca lived with his father, also named John, who later served as the New York State Athletic Commissioner.

(His uncle, Ralph Branca, pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers for many years, including the 1947 World Series. He is portrayed in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42 as one of Robinson's earliest supporters.)

At age 11, Branca moved to LA, and at 13, started a rock band, The Other Half, for which he played guitar.

Three years later, he played with a band that occasionally opened for The Doors at LA's Hullabaloo Club.

He majored in music at Los Angeles City College before transferring to Occidental College.

John Gregory Branca (born December 11, 1950) is an entertainment lawyer and manager who specializes in representing rock and roll acts.

He is also co-executor of the Michael Jackson Estate.

Upon graduating, he enrolled at UCLA School of Law, serving as editor-in-chief of one of the law reviews, and received his degree in 1975.

While working as an estate planner at the firm of Kindel & Anderson, Branca came across a Time profile of Elton John which mentioned entertainment lawyers.

Branca realized that this field of law was his true calling.

One of Branca's early clients was Priscilla Presley.

Branca was hired by Jackson after he fired his father Joseph Jackson as his career manager.

He was also instrumental in the production and release of Michael Jackson's Thriller short film.

Branca helped Jackson purchase ATV Music Publishing in 1985 for $47,500,000 (which held the copyrights to The Beatles' and Little Richard's songs).

Within a few years the catalog was worth more than $400,000,000.

In 1990, Jackson terminated Branca's services due to perceived proximity to Walter Yetnikoff, the CEO of CBS Records, and a consultant to Sony Corp. Jackson also expressed concerns about Branca's representation of other artists such as the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith.

Additionally, Branca requested a 5 percent interest in the Beatles catalog.

Three years later, Jackson sought Branca's advice on merging his ATV catalog with Sony, resulting in Branca rejoining Jackson's team in exchange for a 5% share of the ATV catalog.

Instead, the estate claimed HBO had violated a 1992 agreement never to disparage Jackson's public image, stipulated in the terms for broadcasting his concert film Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour.

In 1995, Branca proposed a merger of Sony's music publishing operations and ATV, resulting in Jackson becoming a significant owner of a larger company and receiving $150 million from Sony.

Branca received 5 percent of this, amounting to $7.5 million.

In 2003, Jackson fired Branca based on a private investigation on behalf of him suggesting the flow of funds from Jackson through Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola and Branca into offshore accounts in the Caribbean.

In 2006, Jackson and Branca's relationship deteriorated further, leading Branca to resign due to conflicts between Jackson and Sony over Branca's 5 percent stake, which complicated Michael's financial situation.

As part of the settlement, Branca sold back his stake for a substantial sum.

Branca reached out to Randy Phillips expressing interest in rejoining Jackson's team shortly after Jackson concluded the press conference for "This Is It" in early March 2009.

Frank DiLeo, Jackson's manager, acted as an intermediary between Branca and Jackson at the request of Randy Phillips.

Branca was rehired by Jackson on June 17, 2009.

In the Michael Jackson probate case, Branca produced Jackson's final will and testament, which designated Branca as executor.

The Jackson family filed a preemptive probate action in the Los Angeles Superior Court, based on the allegation that Jackson died "intestate," without a valid will.

Branca filed the will in Los Angeles on July 1, 2009, and was appointed co-executor.

After initially contesting the appointment of Branca and John McClain as executors of Michael's will, his mother Katherine withdrew her objections on November 10, 2009.

According to the Associated Press, her attorney, Adam Streisand, said "Mrs. Jackson felt it was time legal fighting ended and that her actions were in the best interest of Michael's children."

In an interview published in December 2010 she was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying that Branca and McClain are doing "a very good job" managing the estate.

Projects for the estate that Branca initiated include the concert film Michael Jackson's This Is It, which Branca served as Executive Producer;, and which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-grossing documentary film at the global box office; Cirque du Soleil's "Immortal" which toured from 2011 to 2014 and closed as the eighth-highest-grossing tour of all time; a second, permanent "Cirque" show, Michael Jackson: One at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, which opened in June 2013 and of which he is also a producer; a bestselling Ubisoft video game; a Spike Lee documentary, Bad 25, which Branca also served as producer; the 2014 #1 hit album Xscape; and the "Slave to the Rhythm" "holographic" Jackson performance featured at the Billboard Music Awards, the first of its kind.

Additionally, Branca and the estate brought in Tony Award winning Director/Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage to create MJ the Musical, which opened in February 2022, and an upcoming feature film about Jackson's career produced by Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) producer Graham King that Branca hopes will become “the largest grossing, most acclaimed biopic in the history of Hollywood.”

In 2019, following the release of Leaving Neverland which focuses on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused as children by the singer, he and the rest of the estate condemned it as a "tabloid character assassination".

The issues had caused them to file a $100 million lawsuit against HBO, petitioning the court to compel their arbitrate cooperation regarding the film's broadcast.

As Jackson is dead, HBO cannot be sued for defamation.