Ray Charles Dead

Twelve-time Grammy-winning musician and composer Ray Charles died Thursday. He was 73.

Charles died from acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills home.

Though blind, he was a talented composer, singer, pianist and saxophone player who dabbled in a host of musical genres, including country, jazz, big band and blues.

Born to a poor family in segregated Georgia on September 23, 1930, Ray Charles Robinson was blind by the age of seven.

By the time he was 15, Charles was an orphan.

Over his half-century-long career, Charles won 12 Grammy Awards, nine between 1960 and 1966.

Though most remember him as the smiling, swaying, sunglass-wearing musician seated behind a piano, Charles was no angel. He had a reputation as a womanizer and struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting in 1965.