David Bowie: The Life Story Behind the Starman
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David Bowie was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London, the son of a promotions officer for a children’s charity and a waitress, and he grew up in the suburbs of south London, in Bromley, where he attended school and learned to play the saxophone. He was a bright, restless boy who was interested in art, music and theatre, and he left school at sixteen to work in an advertising agency, playing in bands at night. His early bands were rhythm and blues groups, and he changed his name from David Jones to David Bowie in 1965, to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.
His breakthrough came in 1969, with Space Oddity, a song about an astronaut called Major Tom, released to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing. The record reached the top five in Britain, and it made Bowie a star, but the fame was short-lived, and the next two years were a struggle, with albums that sold poorly and a career that seemed to be going nowhere. Then, in 1972, he created Ziggy Stardust, a bisexual alien rock star, and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars made him one of the most famous musicians in the world.
Bowie’s career lasted almost fifty years, and it took him through glam rock, soul, electronic music, new wave and jazz, with a series of reinventions that became his trademark. He recorded Heroes in Berlin in 1977, Let’s Dance in 1983, and Blackstar in 2016, an album released on his sixty-ninth birthday, two days before his death. He was also an actor, appearing in films including The Man Who Fell to Earth and Labyrinth, and he was a painter and a collector of art.
Bowie died on 10 January 2016 in New York, at the age of 69, of liver cancer, two days after the release of Blackstar. He had kept his illness secret from all but a few friends, and his death shocked the world. This is his life story, from a boy in Brixton to the Starman. This is also the story of a restless artist who moved through folk, glam rock, soul, electronic music and film, reinventing his sound and his image again and again, and whose curiosity about new ideas never faded, even in his final years, when he was still recording, still experimenting, and still surprising the listeners who thought they knew him.
Brixton, Bromley, and the Early Bands
David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London, to Haywood Stenton Jones, who worked for a children’s charity, and Margaret Mary Burns, a waitress, and the family moved to Bromley, in Kent, when David was six. He attended Bromley Technical High School, where he studied art, music and design, and he learned to play the saxophone, the guitar and the piano. He was a good student, but he was restless, and he left school at sixteen to work as a commercial artist in an advertising agency in London, playing in bands in the evenings.
His first bands were rhythm and blues groups, including the Konrads, the King Bees and the Manish Boys, and he released his first single, Liza Jane, in 1964, under the name Davie Jones and the King Bees. The record did not sell, and neither did the singles that followed, but Bowie kept working, changing his style with each release and learning how the music business worked. In 1965 he changed his name to David Bowie, taking the surname from the American frontiersman Jim Bowie and his famous knife, because he did not want to be confused with Davy Jones, the singer in the Monkees.
In 1966 he released a self-titled album, David Bowie, on the Deram label, a collection of music-hall and pop songs that showed his interest in theatre and in character, but the album sold poorly and the label dropped him. He spent the next two years working as a mime, studying with the mime artist Lindsay Kemp, and performing in a folk trio called Feathers, with his girlfriend Hermione Farthingale. The mime training shaped his stagecraft, and the folk years taught him to write songs, but he was still looking for the sound that would make him famous.
Space Oddity and Major Tom
Space Oddity was recorded in June 1969 and released in July, five days before the Apollo 11 moon landing, and it became Bowie’s first hit, reaching number five in Britain. The song told the story of Major Tom, an astronaut who loses contact with ground control and drifts into space, and it was recorded with a string arrangement and a Stylophone, an electronic instrument that gave it an otherworldly sound. The record’s success was helped by the BBC, which used it in its coverage of the moon landing, and Bowie became a star overnight, though he was not yet sure what kind of star he wanted to be.
The album that followed, also called David Bowie and later reissued as Space Oddity, was a mix of folk, rock and psychedelia, and it sold modestly, but it showed a songwriter of unusual ambition, interested in science fiction, in philosophy and in the future. Bowie toured the album in Britain and America, and he began to develop the theatrical stage show that would become his trademark, with costumes, mime and audience participation. The shows were well received, but the records did not sell in large numbers, and by 1971 his career was again in doubt.
He signed with RCA Records in 1971, and he recorded Hunky Dory, an album of piano-driven songs that included Changes, Life on Mars? and Oh! You Pretty Things, all of which became classics. The album sold poorly on release, but it is now regarded as one of his finest, a collection of songs that showed his range as a writer and his willingness to take risks. Hunky Dory was the last step before the reinvention that would change everything, and Bowie knew it, because he had already begun to plan the character who would make him famous.
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders
Ziggy Stardust was a character Bowie created in 1972, a bisexual alien rock star who comes to Earth to save it with music and dies on stage, and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, released in June 1972, made Bowie a star. The album’s songs, including Starman, Suffragette City and Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide, were glam rock anthems, and Bowie’s performances, in platform boots, with bright red hair and a lightning bolt painted on his face, were unlike anything audiences had seen. The character was a sensation, and Bowie became the most talked-about musician in Britain.
The Ziggy tour took Bowie to Britain, America and Japan, and the concerts were theatrical events, with Bowie changing costumes, addressing the audience in character, and performing with his band, the Spiders from Mars, led by the guitarist Mick Ronson. Ronson’s guitar playing was central to the sound, and his arrangements gave the songs a hard, glittering edge. The tour made Bowie a star in America as well, and his appearance on Top of the Pops, performing Starman, is still regarded as one of the great moments in British television.
Bowie killed Ziggy on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 3 July 1973, announcing to a stunned audience that it was the last show they would ever do, and the moment became legendary. He was tired of the character, and he wanted to move on, but the retirement was also a piece of theatre, and it ensured that Ziggy would never be forgotten. The album remains his most famous, and the character remains the image most people associate with his name, even though he recorded for another forty years after it.
Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, and the Move to America
Aladdin Sane, released in April 1973, was the follow-up to Ziggy Stardust, and it was a harder, more American-sounding record, recorded partly in New York and Nashville. The album’s cover, showing Bowie with a lightning bolt painted across his face, became one of the most famous images in rock, and the record reached number one in Britain. The songs included The Jean Genie, a blues-rock number, and Drive-In Saturday, a science-fiction love song, and the album’s success confirmed Bowie as the leading figure in glam rock.
Diamond Dogs, released in 1974, was a darker record, inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984, which Bowie had wanted to adapt for the stage. The album’s songs, including Rebel Rebel and Diamond Dogs, were guitar-driven and theatrical, and the tour that followed was one of the most elaborate in rock history, with a stage set that included a cityscape and a hydraulic lift. The tour was expensive and exhausting, and Bowie’s health suffered, but it established him as a major live act in America, where his audience was growing rapidly.
In 1974 Bowie moved to America, first to New York and then to Los Angeles, where he recorded Young Americans in 1975, an album of Philadelphia soul that produced his first American number one, Fame, co-written with John Lennon. The album was a departure from glam rock, and it showed Bowie’s willingness to change direction completely, a habit that would define his career. He also starred in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976, playing an alien who comes to Earth to save his dying planet, a role that suited him perfectly and that remains one of his best performances.
Berlin, Heroes, and the Trilogy
In 1976 Bowie moved to Berlin, with the musician Brian Eno, to escape the drug problems that had plagued him in Los Angeles and to make music in a new way. The Berlin years produced three albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger, recorded in 1977 and 1979, which are now regarded as among his finest. Low was a mix of short songs and electronic instrumentals, recorded with Eno and the producer Tony Visconti, and it reached number two in Britain despite its experimental nature. Heroes, recorded in the same year, included the title song, a ballad about two lovers meeting by the Berlin Wall, which became one of his most famous recordings.
Heroes was recorded at Hansa Studios, a few hundred yards from the Berlin Wall, and the song’s lyrics were inspired by a couple Bowie had seen meeting by the wall. The recording featured the guitarist Robert Fripp, whose soaring solo became one of the most famous in rock, and Bowie’s vocal, which was recorded with three microphones placed at increasing distances, giving it a sense of space and urgency. The song was not a hit on release, but it became an anthem, played at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and at countless concerts since.
Lodger, released in 1979, completed the trilogy, and it was a more accessible record, with songs that mixed world music, new wave and rock. The Berlin years also saw Bowie acting in films, including Just a Gigolo in 1978, and working with other musicians, including Iggy Pop, whose albums The Idiot and Lust for Life Bowie co-wrote and produced. The move to Berlin had saved his life and his career, and the music he made there remains the most admired of his entire catalogue.
Let’s Dance and the 1980s
Let’s Dance, released in April 1983, was Bowie’s biggest commercial success, and it made him a global superstar. The album was produced by Nile Rodgers of Chic, and it mixed dance music, rock and pop into a sound that was accessible and sophisticated, with the title song and China Girl both reaching the top ten, and Modern Love becoming a hit as well. The album sold more than ten million copies, and the Serious Moonlight tour that followed was the biggest of Bowie’s career, playing stadiums around the world to audiences who had never seen him before.
The success of Let’s Dance changed Bowie’s career, and not entirely for the better. The album made him rich and famous, but it also made him a pop star, and the records that followed, including Tonight in 1984 and Never Let Me Down in 1987, were less successful and less adventurous, and Bowie later said he had lost his way in the 1980s, making records to please the market rather than himself. He formed a hard rock band, Tin Machine, in 1989, in an attempt to start again, and the band recorded two albums and toured, but it did not restore his commercial standing.
He also continued to act, appearing in the film Labyrinth in 1986, playing the Goblin King, a role that introduced him to a new generation of children, and in the BBC television production of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal in 1982. His acting was always taken seriously, and directors valued his presence and his intelligence, but music remained his first love, and he returned to it in the 1990s with a series of albums that were more experimental, including Outside in 1995 and Earthling in 1997, both of which were well received by critics.
The 1990s, the Marriage, and the Return
In 1992 Bowie married the Somali model Iman, and the marriage, which lasted until his death, was the most stable relationship of his life. The couple lived in New York, and they had a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, born in 2000. Bowie’s son from his first marriage, Duncan Jones, born in 1971, became a film director, and the family was close, with Bowie describing his life with Iman as the happiest period of his career. He was a private man, and he kept his family life out of the press, but friends said the marriage changed him, giving him a stability he had never had before.
His music in the 1990s was varied and experimental, and it included the industrial-influenced Outside, a concept album about art and murder, and Earthling, which mixed drum and bass with rock guitar. He also recorded a duet with Queen, Under Pressure, in 1981, which had become one of his most famous songs, and he performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, singing Heroes and Under Pressure to a stadium audience. He was honoured with a knighthood in 2003, which he declined, saying he did not see the point of it, and he continued to record and tour into the early 2000s.
His last tour ended in 2004, when he suffered a heart attack on stage in Germany, and he withdrew from public life for almost a decade, living quietly in New York and working on music in private. He made no public appearances, gave no interviews, and released no records, and the music world wondered if he had retired. Then, on his sixty-sixth birthday in January 2013, he released a new single, Where Are We Now?, and announced a new album, The Next Day, which became a critical and commercial success, reaching number one in Britain and selling well around the world.
Blackstar and the Farewell
Blackstar was recorded in secret in 2015, with a band of New York jazz musicians led by the saxophonist Donny McCaslin, and it was released on 8 January 2016, Bowie’s sixty-ninth birthday. The album was a mix of jazz, rock and electronic music, with lyrics about death, mortality and farewell, and it was immediately recognised as a major work, one of the finest albums of his career. Two days later, on 10 January 2016, Bowie died in New York of liver cancer, and it became clear that the album had been a deliberate farewell, recorded while he knew he was dying.
The album’s videos, including the ten-minute film for the title song, directed by Johan Renck, were filled with images of death and resurrection, and they were understood, after his death, as a carefully planned goodbye. The song Lazarus, with its lyrics about looking up and being in heaven, was played at his funeral, and the album won five Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Performance and Best Alternative Music Album. The secrecy of the recording, and the precision of the farewell, were typical of Bowie, a man who had always controlled his own image.
Bowie was cremated in New York, and his ashes were scattered in Bali, in accordance with Buddhist rituals, a private ceremony attended only by his family. His death led to tributes around the world, with landmarks lit in his honour and fans gathering in Brixton, Berlin and New York to mourn. His wife Iman, his son Duncan and his daughter Alexandria issued a statement thanking fans for their support, and the music world mourned the loss of one of its great innovators, a man who had changed popular music more than once, and who had done it on his own terms.
The Legacy of the Starman
Bowie’s influence on popular music is immense. He showed that a rock star could be an actor, a painter, a fashion designer and a businessman, and that reinvention was not a sign of indecision but a form of art. His records are studied in music schools as examples of songwriting, production and performance, and his stagecraft is taught in theatre schools as an example of how to use costume, light and movement. Musicians from Madonna to Lady Gaga have named him as their primary influence, and his songs are covered in every genre.
He sold more than a hundred million records in his career, and he won numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards and a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and his records are in the Library of Congress, with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars added to the National Recording Registry in 2017. His art collection, which he built over decades, was sold after his death for tens of millions of pounds, a sign of his eye as a collector as well as a musician.
Today Bowie is remembered as one of the great figures of twentieth-century culture, and his image, with its lightning bolt and its red hair, is one of the most famous in the world. His music is played every day, his films are still watched, and his influence is heard in the work of artists who were not born when he recorded his first hit. He was born in Brixton, he worked in London, Berlin and New York, and he died a legend, and his songs remain the proof of a life lived with imagination and with courage.
My Take:
What I admire about David Bowie is that he reinvented himself, again and again, for five decades, from Ziggy Stardust, to the Thin White Duke, to the pop star of Let’s Dance, to the elder statesman of Blackstar, and that is a rare thing, because many artists find one style, and stick to it, and Bowie did not, and he changed, and he grew, and he became a new person, with every album, and that is why he is a chameleon, and why his music is still studied today, by musicians who want to learn how to reinvent themselves, and who listen to Bowie, and who try to understand his genius, and who know they never will, because it was unique, and it was Bowie’s, and it was a gift, and that gift is still here, in recordings that are more than fifty years old.
Ziggy Stardust is the album I think about most, because it is one of the greatest albums ever made, and Bowie’s performance is at its heart. He created Ziggy, an alien rock star, who comes to Earth, to save it, with music, and who becomes a superstar, and who dies, and Bowie became Ziggy, on stage, with red hair, with a lightning bolt painted across his face, in a flamboyant costume, and he performed, as Ziggy, in concerts that were legendary, for their energy, their theatre, and their music, and that made Bowie a superstar, and that is a gift that few artists possess, the gift of transformation, and Bowie had it, and he used it, in Ziggy Stardust, and in many other characters, characters that he created, and that he became, and that made him a chameleon, and a legend.
Heroes is a song I love, because it is about two lovers, by the Berlin Wall, who kiss, and who are heroes, just for one day, a song that is one of the most beloved ever recorded, and that is still sung today, as an anthem, for lovers, and for heroes, and that shows Bowie at his best, as a singer, and as a songwriter, who could write a song about a wall, and about love, and make it feel universal, and that is a gift that few songwriters possess, the gift of making a song about a specific place, feel universal, and Bowie had it, and he used it, in Heroes, and in many other songs, songs that are still sung today, by singers who wish they could sing like Bowie, and by audiences who love them, because they are timeless, because they are honest, and because they are Bowie.
Blackstar is an album that moves me, because he recorded it, in secret, while he was dying of liver cancer, and he released it, on his 69th birthday, just two days before his death, and it is a farewell, and a masterpiece, an album that is about death, and about a man who is facing his own mortality, and who is singing about it, with a honesty, and a courage, that is unforgettable, and that is a testament to his talent, and to his determination, and to the power of a great artist, who, even when he is dying, can still make music, and can still move an audience, with a voice that is a gift, and that will never fade, and that is a legacy that will never be forgotten, and a life that will always be remembered, as one of the greatest in the history of popular music.
The lesson I take from Bowie is that reinvention matters. He reinvented himself, again and again, for five decades, and that is a lesson for anyone who feels stuck, or who feels like they have to stay the same, because Bowie shows that you can change, and you can grow, and you can become a new person, with every album, and that is a powerful message, for anyone who wants to be an artist, because Bowie shows that reinvention is possible, and that it is worth it, if you have the talent, and the determination, and Bowie did, and he did it, in Ziggy Stardust, and in Heroes, and in Blackstar, and in every album he made, and that is why his career lasted for five decades, and why his music is still important today, more than fifty years after Space Oddity was recorded.
I also think about his difference, because he was a man who was different, and who embraced his difference, and who made it into art, and that is a hopeful message, for anyone who feels different, or who feels like an outsider, because Bowie shows that you can be different, and you can be great, and you can be loved, and that is a lesson that is still relevant today, in a world where many people feel different, and feel like outsiders, and Bowie is a reminder that being different is a gift, and that it can make you great, and that is a beautiful thing, and it is a part of why his story is inspiring, and why it will always be inspiring, and it is a reminder that we should not hide our differences, but embrace them, the way Bowie did, and make them into art.
His lightning bolt is something I admire, because it became his signature, a symbol of Ziggy Stardust, and of a man who was, in every sense, a starman, and that is a part of his image that is iconic, and that is still remembered today, as a symbol of Bowie, and of a man who was different, and who was great, and that is a beautiful thing, and it is a part of his story that shows him as an artist, not just as a musician, and that is a legacy that matters, in its own way, alongside his albums and his songs, because his image is as important as his music, and it is still imitated today, by artists who want to be like Bowie, and who know they never will, because there was only one David Bowie, and he was the Starman, and he was the man who fell to Earth.
Finally, I believe David Bowie was one of the greatest artists who ever lived, and his albums are classics that will be played for as long as music is played. He was the Starman, he was Ziggy Stardust, and he was a legend, and his story is one of talent, reinvention, and a life lived with a lightning bolt. He will always be remembered as the man who fell to Earth, and who changed music, and fashion, forever, and who did it, with a talent that was extraordinary, and that will never be forgotten.
One more thing I want to say is that his film, The Man Who Fell to Earth, is one of my favourite films, because he played an alien, who comes to Earth, to find water, for his dying planet, a role that was fitting for Bowie, because he was, in many ways, an alien, a man who was different, and who was, in every sense, a starman, and who played the role, with a talent that was extraordinary, and that made the film a cult classic, and that is a part of his legacy, a legacy that is still felt today, in every film that features an alien, and in every artist who wants to be different, and who looks to Bowie, as the model, and as the master, and that is a beautiful thing, and it is a part of his story that shows him as an actor, not just as a musician.
When I think about Brixton, his birthplace, I think about how far he travelled, from a shy boy in London to the most famous artist in the world, and how much he achieved. He was a boy who was interested in music, and in art, and who became a legend, and that is a story that inspires anyone who dreams of being an artist, because it shows that dreams can come true, even if you start with nothing, and Bowie started with nothing, and he became everything, and that is a hopeful message, and one that he embodied, in every album he made, and in every concert he gave.
I will end by saying that listening to David Bowie sing was a privilege, and I am grateful to have heard his voice. He was a chameleon, he was a starman, and he was a legend, and those three things together make a great artist. He is Ziggy Stardust, he is the Thin White Duke, and he is David Bowie, and he will always be remembered as such, as a legend, and as a lightning bolt that will never be forgotten.
There is a final thought I want to leave with, and it is about the line from Heroes, where he sings, we can be heroes, just for one day, a line that has stayed with me, because it is a lesson about love, about courage, and about being a hero, even if it is just for one day. Bowie sang that line with a warmth that has stayed with me, because it is a lesson about life, about love, and about being human. That is the power of his singing: it teaches us how to live, and it makes us better people, by showing us that we can be heroes, even if it is just for one day, and that is a lesson I will carry with me, always.
And if you have never heard Heroes, listen to it, because it is one of the great songs of all time, and Bowie’s performance is at its heart. Listen to it for the story, for the wall, and for the lovers, and for the man who sang it with a conviction that is unforgettable. That is the David Bowie I will remember: not just the artist, but the man, who was a chameleon, and a starman, and who will never be forgotten.
One last memory: the image of him with a lightning bolt painted across his face, in a flamboyant costume, on a stage, with a guitar, and a smile that is both cool and warm, and that is unforgettable. That image is iconic, and it is beautiful, and it is the image that will define him forever. He was Ziggy Stardust, and he was David Bowie, and he was the Starman.
His legacy will live on through his albums, through his lightning bolt, and through the generations of artists he inspired, who heard his music and wanted to be like him. That is a fitting legacy for a man who defined reinvention, and who did it with a lightning bolt and a voice that will never be forgotten. He is gone, but his music remains, and his name will be remembered as one of the greats.
Finally, I want to say thank you, David Bowie, for Ziggy Stardust, for Heroes, and for a life lived with a lightning bolt. You were a great artist, and you were a great man, and the world is a better place because you were in it. Your music is still here, your legacy is still here, and your example is still here, and that is a life that mattered, and a life that will never be forgotten.
And one more thing: if you are an artist, be like Bowie, because he is the artist every artist deserves to be, an artist who reinvents himself, and who makes an audience feel. Be like Bowie, the way David Bowie was Bowie, and the world will be a better place for it, because the world needs more artists like him, who reinvent themselves, and who do it with talent, and with courage, and with humanity.
There is a last lesson in his life that I carry with me, and it is this: reinvent yourself, even when it is hard, because reinvention is a choice, and Bowie chose it, every day, in every album, and in every part of his life. That is a lesson worth remembering, and it is one I will carry with me, always, because the world needs more people like David Bowie, who reinvent themselves, and who do it with talent, and with courage, and who change music, and fashion, forever.
One final thought: his five Grammy Awards for Blackstar, won after his death, are a testament to his talent, because he won them for an album that he recorded, while he was dying, and that is a record that speaks for itself. He was great, even when he was dying, and he was great at every age, and that is a rare achievement, and it is a reminder that talent does not fade with age, and that a great artist can be great for a lifetime, if he has the talent, the determination, and the lightning bolt that Bowie possessed.
And if you ever doubt that one person can make a difference, remember David Bowie, because he did, as an artist, and as a chameleon, and his difference is still felt today, in every pop song, in every fashion show, and in every person who loves music, and that is a legacy that will last, long after his lightning bolt is seen, because his music is still here, and his influence is still here, and that is a gift that will never fade.
There is one more thing I want to say, and it is about his wife Iman, because she was his wife for 24 years, until his death, and she loved him, and she was loyal to him, and she has kept his memory alive, after his death, and that is a beautiful thing, and it is a part of his story that shows him as a husband, not just as a star, and that is a legacy that matters, in its own way, alongside his albums and his lightning bolt, because his family is his greatest legacy, and they have honoured him, by being themselves, just as he was himself.
His story also reminds me that a shy boy from Brixton can become a legend, if he has talent, determination, and a lightning bolt, and that is a hopeful message for anyone who feels shy, or different, or like an outsider. Bowie was shy, and he was different, and he became one of the greatest artists in history, because he embraced who he was, and he used his talent to become great. That is a lesson worth remembering, for every shy person out there, and for every person who dreams of being an artist.
I also want to mention his collaborator, Brian Eno, because he worked with Bowie, on the Berlin Trilogy, and he helped him, to create a sound that was entirely Bowie’s, and that is a reminder that a collaborator who believes in an artist can change their life, and that Bowie was lucky to have Eno, and that Eno was lucky to have Bowie, and that is a beautiful thing, and it is a part of his story that shows the power of collaboration, and of a friend who cares, and who does the right thing.
And finally, I think about the fact that he died just two days after his birthday, and just two days after releasing Blackstar, and that is a poignant detail, a man who released an album, on his birthday, and died, two days later, and that is a reminder that life is short, and that we should make the most of it, the way David Bowie did, living a life that was both beautiful and tragic, and that is a life worth living, and a life worth remembering, and I am grateful to have learned about it, and to have shared it with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was David Bowie born?
David Bowie was born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London, England, as David Robert Jones. He grew up in Bromley, Kent, learned saxophone and guitar, and played in bands as a teenager.
What is David Bowie most famous for?
He is most famous for Ziggy Stardust, Space Oddity, Heroes, Let’s Dance, and Blackstar, and for reinventing himself as Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke, and other characters over five decades.
Who was Ziggy Stardust?
Ziggy Stardust was an alien rock star character Bowie created for his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed on stage with red hair and a lightning bolt across his face.
When did David Bowie die?
He died on 10 January 2016 in New York, at the age of 69, of liver cancer, just two days after his birthday and two days after releasing his final album Blackstar.
What is Blackstar?
Blackstar is Bowie’s final album, released on 8 January 2016, recorded in secret while he was dying of liver cancer. It won five Grammy Awards after his death, including Best Rock Album.
What films did David Bowie act in?
He starred in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Labyrinth (1986) as Jareth the Goblin King, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), and The Prestige (2006) as Nikola Tesla.
