In Jazz, Who Was 'The Bird'?

The Bird was Charlie Parker, legendary jazz saxophonist who lived from 1920-1955.  He is credited as being the most important creative mind behind the resurgence of jazz in the 1930's and 40's.
Charlie Parker lived quite a troubled life and by the end of the 1930's he had a heroin habit as well as a drink problem.  His death was actually caused by liver failure.  He also experienced a mental breakdown.
However, in jazz terms he was an incredible improviser.  He worked with many of the great names of the time, including Dizzy Gillespie.  Whilst racism was still a real issue in the US, Parker had universal appeal.  He even toured Europe, right through to Scandanavia and appeared at the Paris jazz festival of 1949.  However, in the early 1950's his creative genius was tired and feeling the effects of almost twenty years of substance abuse and in the period prior to his death the music he produced was not his best.