Jeffrey Daniel most notable for being a member of the soul vocal group Shalamar which sold millions of records worldwide (making him a big star) he was also the first person to moonwalk on tv, during a performance of Shalamar's "A Night to remember" on, top of the pops in 1982, almost a year before Michael Jackson moonwalked for the first time on the Motown 25 television broadcast. Jackson was a big fan in the 1970's of the TV show Soul Train he soon met, learned from, and later hired dancer/choreographers from the Soul Train TV show. Dance partners Geron "Casper" Candidate and Cooley Jackson taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk.
The first widely acknowledged backslide or moonwalk was done in 1968

If you see Jeffrey Daniel moonwalk or Geron Candidate these days they are still better than Jackson, and the fact Geron has stated as recently as 2001 that Jackson still has lessons suggests he is aware of this