He was shot by his father.
He was 44 years old—one day before his forty-fifth birthday.
He left behind three children, two former wives, one ex-wife who had remained a friend, a brother who loved him, a mother who had kept him from despair, and a body of music that has not stopped moving people in the more than four decades since his death.
The music is still going.
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SOURCES AND NOTES ON METHODOLOGY
This article draws on publicly available biographical sources, court records, and documented contemporary accounts. Primary biographical source material includes David Ritz’s *Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye* (1985), the foundational biography of Gaye’s life compiled with the cooperation of family members and associates. Career and discographical information draws on official Motown and Columbia Records documentation as reflected in published accounts.
Legal proceedings—the initial first-degree murder charge, Gay Sr.’s no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter in September 1984, and the November 1984 suspended sentence—are documented in public court records and contemporary news coverage.
The account of Frankie Gaye’s recollection of Marvin’s alleged final words is drawn from Frankie Gaye’s memoir and is presented as memoir recollection, not as independently verified fact. Family members’ beliefs about Marvin’s intent on April 1 are similarly presented as their stated beliefs, not as established historical fact.
Medical findings—the autopsy results, the brain tumor discovered in Gay Sr.—are derived from court testimony and contemporary news accounts.
Where scholarly or critical assessments are cited (*Rolling Stone* rankings, Grammy records, chart positions), these are drawn from published sources with documented evidentiary bases.