Steve Jobs: His Life in Pictures

On Oct. 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away. The irrepressible and iconic leader of the personal computer revolution, has been the undisputed king of Silicon Valley for the better part of three decades.

From the Macintosh and the iPod, to iTunes and the iPhone, Jobs has secured his legacy as one of the few who dared to “Think Different.”

Here, we take a look at his life: From adoptee to college dropout to business maverick and cancer patient, these are some of the personal and professional highlights of Steve Jobs' life.

By Constance Parten
Posted 22 June 2011; Updated 5 October 2011

Jobs was born Feb. 24, 1955, in San Francisco and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He grew up in the house pictured left and created the first Macintosh computer in the garage.

His biological parents — Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Simpson — were unmarried graduate students at the time of his birth. The couple later married and had a daughter, whom they raised. Jobs' biological sister is the novelist Mona Simpson.

Sources: IMDB.com, Money.CNN.com, Biography.com

Jobs is famously known for dropping out of college after only one semester. After he left, he ended up traveling to India in search of spiritual enlightenment and returned to the U.S. as a Buddhist with a shaved head.

During this time, Jobs also experimented with psychedelic drugs. He is quoted in the 2005 book "What the Dormouse Said," by New York Times reporter John Markoff as saying his LSD experiences were "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." Jobs, pictured at left in 1977 after launching Apple, continued to practice Zen Buddhism.

Sources: TimesOfIndia.com,Wired.com,Amazon.com,TampaBay.com,Bloomberg.com,Time.com

Like his biological parents, Jobs also had a child out of wedlock. In 1978, Jobs' love interest, painter Chrisann Brennan, gave birth to a baby girl. Jobs denied paternity based on claims that he was sterile, so Brennan raised their daugher on her own, even using the welfare system to get by.

Jobs later acknowledged Lisa Brennan-Jobs (pictured left) as his daughter. Lisa was the namesake of one of Jobs' "worst" creations, the Lisa, a $10,000 "ugly piece of machinery."

Brennan-Jobs graduated from Harvard in 2000 and is a writer. Her essays are available at www.lisabrennanjobs.net.

Sources: IMDB.com,CNBC.com,MSN.com

In the unauthorized biography, "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," author Alan Deutschman wrote that Jobs once dated Joan Baez.

Jobs has never confirmed his relationship with the singer, but in another unauthorized biography, "iCon: Steve Jobs" by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, the authors suggested that Jobs would have married Baez, but her age meant it was unlikely the couple could have children.

Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo apartment building on Central Park West in New York in 1982. Other famous residents of the building include Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg, and Steve Martin.

Jobs reportedly spent years renovating the apartment in the building's north tower, but never moved in. He later sold it to U2 singer Bono.

Sources: NYTimes.com,Wired.com

Apple rolled out the Macintosh computer with 128K RAM of memory in January 1984. It soon became obvious more memory was needed, and Apple released an updated version with 512K RAM.

The Mac was the first personal computer driven by a graphical user interface, becoming the basis for all of today's PC interfaces.

Video: Steve Jobs  (looking oddly like Tucker Carlson) demos the Mac.

Source: BusinessInsider.com, BBC.co.uk

Jobs left Apple in 1985 after a power struggle with CEO John Sculley, and started a new computer firm, NeXT Inc. The company's hardware didn't take off, but the software was so solid that Apple eventually bought NeXT in 1997 and invited Jobs back as an advisor.

NeXT software eventually became the basis for Apple's OS X, which runs today's Macs, iPhones, iPod touch, and the iPad.

Sources: BusinessInsider.com, SFGate.com

Jobs married Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991, in a ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, with a Zen Buddhist monk presiding. The couple, pictured left in December 2005, have three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna, and Eve.

Source: BusinessInsider.com

In spite of his successes with computers, Jobs' first major hit of the 1990s was a movie. Jobs bought animation studio Pixar from George Lucas in 1986.

In 1995, Toy Story became a box office blockbuster, grossing more than $191 million in the U.S. and Canada. When Pixar IPO'd in November 1995, Jobs, who had sunk $60 million into the enterprise, recouped a paper profit of more than $600 million for his 80 percent stake.

Sources: BusinessInsider.com, Pixar.Wikia.com

In July 2004, Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. While he recuperated, Apple's sales and operations chief, Tim Cook, ran the company, while Pixar's President Ed Catmull oversaw operations there. Jobs returned to work at Apple the following September.

Jobs is shown at left delivering the keynote address at the 2004 Worldwide Developers Conference June 28, 2004, in San Francisco.

Sources: BBC.co.uk,SFGate.com,SeattleTimes.com,Boston.com

Jobs is famously known for his affection for The Beatles. In fact, when asked about his business model by television news magazine "60 Minutes," he replied: "My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people."

Source: CNET.com

In August 2008, Bloomberg News mistakenly published a 2,500-word obituary announcing Jobs' death. Jobs responded during a keynote address in September by borrowing a line from Mark Twain: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

It had been just four years since Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. Six months later, in April 2009, he would undergo a full liver transplant. In January 2011, it was announced Jobs was taking a medical leave of absence.

Sources: CNET.com, WSJ.com

For the last decade or so, Jobs is almost always seen wearing the same outfit: black mock turtleneck, Levi's 501 jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.

This seeming uniform has been the basis of much speculation on the Internet — he wears the same thing so he has one less decision to make every day, it's his own personal branding — and even a tech-geek joke or two: Why does Steve Jobs always wear a black turtleneck? A suit has too many buttons for him.

Check Out: StevesOutfit.com

Jobs has been involved in some amazing projects during his career. In fact, Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor on more than 230 awarded patents or patent applications on a range of technologies, from computer and portable devices to user interfaces, speakers, keyboards, power adapters, and staircases.

Source: USPTO.gov

Jobs resigned as Apple CEO on Aug. 24, 2011, and passed the reins to his right-hand man, Tim Cook, saying he could no longer fulfill his duties, though he made no mention of the poor health that has forced him to take a back seat over the last year.

After a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs passed away with his family by his side on Oct. 5, 2011, at the age of 56.

Once news of his death reached the public, there was a global outpouring of sadness and respect for a man who forever changed the way people interact with technology and media. On Apple's website, a tribute page mourned the loss of the company's late visionary leader, and reaffirmed that "his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

From his parents’ California garage Steve Jobs launched the personal computer revolution and built Apple into the most envied, and valuable, technology company in the world.

"CNBC Titans"  profiles Jobs and other remarkable people who made careers turning the “unthinkable” into reality and companies that grew from humble roots to worldwide recognition.

• Visit the Show Page
• Video: The Legendary Steve Jobs
• Video: How Steve Jobs Announced the First Macintosh