David Robert Jones 8 January 1947 10 January 2016 known professionally as David Bowie was an English singer songwriter and actor He was a figure in popular music for over five decades regarded by critics and musicians as an innovator particularly for his work in the 1970s His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation his music and stagecraft significantly influencing popular music During his lifetime his record sales estimated at 140 million worldwide made him one of the worlds bestselling music artists In the UK he was awarded nine platinum album certifications eleven gold and eight silver releasing eleven numberone albums In the US he received five platinum and seven gold certifications He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 Born and raised in South London Bowie developed an interest in music as a child eventually studying art music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963 Space Oddity became his first topfive entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969 After a period of experimentation he reemerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust The character was spearheaded by the success of his single Starman and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars which won him widespread popularity In 1975 Bowies style shifted radically towards a sound he characterised as plastic soul initially alienating many of his UK devotees but garnering him his first major US crossover success with the numberone single Fame and the album Young Americans In 1976 Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station The following year he further confounded musical expectations with the electronicinflected album Low 1977 the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that would come to be known as the Berlin Trilogy Heroes 1977 and Lodger 1979 followed each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise After uneven commercial success in the late 1970s Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single Ashes to Ashes its parent album Scary Monsters And Super Creeps and Under Pressure a 1981 collaboration with Queen He then reached his commercial peak in 1983 with Lets Dance with its title track topping both UK and US charts Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles including industrial and jungle Bowie also continued acting his roles included Major Celliers in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence 1983 the Goblin King Jareth in Labyrinth 1986 Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ 1988 and Nikola Tesla in The Prestige 2006 among other film and television appearances and cameos He stopped concert touring after 2004 and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006 In 2013 Bowie returned from a decadelong recording hiatus with the release of The Next Day He remained musically active until he died of liver cancer two days after the release of his final album Blackstar 2016
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