From his standout Super Bowl performance to appearances on sitcoms, here is the best of Prince.
After a career that spanned nearly 40 years, Prince has been silenced.
He stood five feet, two inches, but he was a giant in the industry.
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In 1982, he released his fifth album, 1999, and its title track made the singer a household name.
Two years later, he released the soundtrack to the film, Purple Rain, which he starred in. The picture, loosely based on his life, won him an Oscar in 1985 for “Best Original Song.”
His music videos were staples of MTV and he was one of the channel's few black artists whose videos were played. Thanks to his blend of rock, funk, R&B, and early hip-hop, he crossed cultures and made fans around the world.
He was also controversial because of sexually explicit lyrics in songs such as “Darling Nikki,” “Do It All Night,” “Dirty Mind” and “Sexuality.”
In 1993, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, and fans began calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince."
It was reported that the name change came after Warner Bros. wanted him to release fewer albums so he could be better promoted. The singer refused. Altering his name to a symbol allowed him to make music on his terms and not on the company's.
In 2000, he went back to being called Prince after his contract with Warner expired.
He was always flamboyant. In 2007, he delivered a spectacular Super Bowl halftime show, playing in a fierce rain storm.
Later that year he headlined Coachella for the first and last time. It would be the only American music festival the singer ever played in current century.
Prince also launched the careers of female protégées including drummer Sheila E, Vanity and Apollonia.
In the last few years of his life, he only wanted female musicians to back him. His last band, 3rd Eye Girl would go on to record his 2014 album, Plectrumelectrum.
At the 2015 Grammys, Prince surprised the audience when he stepped out to present Album of the Year to Beck.
In typical Prince fashion, he took the stage and went off script saying: “Like books and black lives, albums still matter.”
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He continued to release music until 2015, where he put out two albums, his 38th and 39th albums, Hit n Run Phase One and Hit n Run Phase Two.
He continued to tour and was recently on the "Piano and a Microphone Tour," a series of stripped-down performances in intimate theaters.
Last year, he performed with Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney at the Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary post-party.
Prince was married to Mayte Garcia in 1996. They had a son who died at one week old due to a rare birth defect. They were divorced three years later. In 2001, he married Manuela Testolini and divorced in 2006.
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