David Bowie

David Robert Jones, born on 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London, and known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter, actor, and Broadway performer. He died on 10 January 2016. Raised in south London, Bowie grew up at 40 Stansfield Road in the borough of Lambeth before his family relocated to Bickley, then Bromley Common, and eventually Sundridge Park. He attended Burnt Ash Junior School and later Bromley Technical High School. His father, Haywood Stenton Jones, worked as a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's, and his mother, Margaret Mary Jones, was a cinema waitress. A serious eye injury sustained in 1962, when schoolmate George Underwood struck him during a fight, left Bowie with permanent anisocoria and faulty depth perception following a four-month hospitalization and multiple operations.

Bowie studied art, music, and design, and his musical education began early. After his maternal half-brother Terry Burns introduced him to modern jazz, his mother gave him a Grafton saxophone in 1961, and he began taking lessons from baritone saxophonist Ronnie Ross. He formed his first band, the Konrads, in 1962 at the age of fifteen, playing guitar-based rock and roll at local events. He subsequently joined the King Bees before embarking on a solo path. A self-titled solo album appeared in 1967, following a string of unsuccessful singles. His fortunes shifted with "Space Oddity" in 1969, which became his first top-five entry on the UK singles chart.

In 1972, during the glam rock era, Bowie introduced the alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars brought him widespread popularity. By 1975, his sound had shifted toward what he described as "plastic soul," yielding the number-one US single "Fame" and the album Young Americans. The following year he starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. Beginning in 1977, he collaborated with Brian Eno on a series of three albums — Low, Heroes, and Lodger — each reaching the UK top five and earning critical praise. The 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" and its accompanying album Scary Monsters reached number one, as did "Under Pressure," a 1981 collaboration with Queen. His greatest commercial success came with Let's Dance in 1983.

In 1979, Bowie brought his talents to Broadway, appearing in The Elephant Man. Between 1988 and 1992, he fronted the hard rock band Tin Machine. His acting work across film included Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Labyrinth (1986), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Basquiat (1996), and The Prestige (2006). He retired from touring in 2004, and his final live performance took place at a charity event in 2006. After a decade-long recording hiatus, he returned in 2013 with The Next Day. His final studio album, Blackstar, was released two days before his death in 2016 and became his only record to top the US Billboard 200.

Over the course of his lifetime, Bowie's record sales were estimated at more than 100 million worldwide. He received six Grammy Awards and four Brit Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. As of 2022, he held the distinction of being the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century.