david bowie biography film

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Moonage daydream, tv-14 | music documentaries | 2 hr 15 min | 2023.

Moonage Daydream illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie, one of the most prolific and influential artists of our time. Guided by Bowie’s own narration and told through sublime, kaleidoscopic, never-before-seen footage, performances, and music, this feature length experiential cinematic odyssey explores his creative, musical, and spiritual journey. 

In 2018, Morgen was granted unprecedented access to Bowie’s archives encompassing a lifetime of materials, including an extensive catalog of unseen footage and personal collection of his own art and poetry. He spent four years assembling the film and another 18 months designing the soundscape, animations, and color palette while working with Bowie’s long-time collaborator, friend, and music producer Tony Visconti as well as Academy Award-winning sound mixer Paul Massey (“Bohemian Rhapsody”).

An official selection of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Moonage Daydream is one of the most critically acclaimed and celebrated documentaries of the year. The film won the WGA Award for Best Documentary Screenplay, CAS Award for Best Sound Mix-Documentary, and the MPSE Award for Best Music Editing. It received five Critics Choice Award nominations, winning the award for Best Editing, and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Documentary.

Moonage Daydream is presented by HBO Documentary Films; written, directed, produced, and edited by Brett Morgen; executive produced by Kathy Rivkin Daum, Hartwig Masuch, Justus Haerder, Michael Rapino, Heather Parry, Ryan Kroft, Billy Zysblat, Tom Cyrana, Eileen D’Arcy, Aisha Cohen, Debra Eisenstadt, and Bill Gerber; re-recording mixers Paul Massey and David Giammarco; music produced by Tony Visconti.

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‘Moonage Daydream’ Review: David Bowie’s Sound and Vision

Brett Morgen’s new documentary about the singer uses archival material, not talking heads. But the film is more séance than biography.

By A.O. Scott

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The usual way of making a documentary about a famous, no-longer-living popular musician is to weave talking-head interviews (with colleagues, journalists and random celebrities with nothing better to do) around video clips of the star onstage and in the studio. The story tends to follow a standard script: early struggles followed by triumph, disaster and redemption. Movies like this clog the streaming platforms, catering to eager fans and nostalgic dads.

Brett Morgen’s new film about David Bowie is something different. Titled “Moonage Daydream” after a semi-deep cut from Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” and showing in IMAX as well as other formats, it’s less a biography than a séance. Instead of plodding through the chronology of Bowie’s life and career, Morgen conjures the singer’s presence through an artful collage of concert footage and other archival material, including feature films and music videos. There are a lot of great songs, and thanks to Morgen’s dexterous editing, Bowie himself seems to provide the narration, a ghostly effect ( he died in 2016 ) that resonates with some of his ideas about time, consciousness and the universe. He is not so much the subject of the film as its animating spirit.

“Does it matter? Do I bother?” he asks at the beginning, musing on the transience of existence. For anyone who grew up following the iterations of his persona and the evolution of his music, the answer, at least as far as the movie is concerned, is emphatically yes.

Morgen, who has made documentaries about the Chicago 7 , Kurt Cobain, Jane Goodall and the Hollywood producer Robert Evans , subordinates the dry facts of history to the mysteries of personality. “Moonage Daydream” is interested in what it felt like to be David Bowie, and also, as a corollary, what it felt like, especially in the 1970s and ’80s, to be interested in him. Context and evaluation — the sources and influences of his music; its relation to what was happening in the wider world — are left to the viewer to supply or infer. The work, and the artist’s presence, are paramount.

For the most part, this approach works. Though Morgen bends and twists the timeline when it suits him, he traces an arc from the early ’70s into the ’90s, beginning in the Ziggy Stardust years and immersing the audience in Bowie’s otherworldly charisma at that moment. His bright orange hair, his brilliantly inventive fashion sense, his frank bisexuality and his almost casual mastery of divergent musical idioms made him an irresistible puzzle for the media and an idol to the restless and curious young.

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10 great movies ruined by one performance, the 46 best movies on max right now (july 2024).

David Bowie was always larger-than-life. Whether it was his incredible and colorful outfits, his idiosyncratic persona, or his unforgettable music, it is safe to proclaim Bowie as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, which means that a persona as elusive but impressive as Bowie requires a documentary that can capture all of his immeasurable qualities and then some. Enter filmmaker Brett Morgen 's riveting Moonage Daydream , an epic documentary that promises to deliver on all Bowie's eccentricities while not dishonoring the myth behind the legend.

Moonage Daydream is an explosive mixture of previously unreleased archival footage of Bowie and live concert footage. It is also the first documentary about David Bowie to be authorized by his estate. The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival where it received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the film for its experimental, unconventional structure.

Morgen had been developing Moonage Daydream for at least four years, announcing the film back in 2021. Morgen received exclusive permission from the Bowie Estate to develop the film, the first filmmaker to receive such massive exposure to Bowie's huge litany of work. Morgen was granted unprecedented access to five million items belonging to Bowie, including paintings, drawings, recordings, photographs, films, and journals. Morgen worked closely with Tony Visconti on overseeing all of these never-before-released materials. Visconti served as Bowie's music producer for years, giving Morgen personal knowledge regarding Bowie's professional life.

Morgen best exemplifies Bowie's approach to living, which included taking fragments of his own surrounding life, such as art, family, and politics, and using that to create his own existence. Morgen's documentary utilizes that same approach, taking fragments from Bowie's life and using that to create the ultimate cinematic experience. In that sense, Morgen eschews the typical "music biography documentary" approach. This makes Moonage Daydream the perfect cinematic experience for the big screen, where the images and music intertwine to become sensory overload. Morgen blasts you with excerpts of rare, behind-the-scenes footage from Bowie's concerts and then shakes the speakers with pulsating music from Bowie's discography. It's an experience tailor-made for the massive IMAX screen.

There are many reasons to watch Moonage Daydream on the big screen. For one, Morgen lets several of Bowie's concerts play out nearly in their entirety. He creates a cacophony of swirling emotions from Bowie's live musical performances, creating nearly a non-stop montage of exploding imagery and sound from beginning to end. Morgen connects all the different periods of Bowie's life in a way that pays immense respect to the musician. It shouldn't quite work the way it does, but even with its slightly repetitive nature, Moonage Daydream never feels redundant or boring. Like David Bowie himself, it is larger-than-life in the best way possible.

Moonage Daydream was released in theaters on September 16th, 2022. Here's how to watch the film.

Related: 'Moonage Daydream': David Bowie Documentary Secures $4.7 Million Opening Weekend at IMAX Box Office

Is Moonage Daydream Streaming Online?

Moonage Daydream is expected to be released on HBO MAX sometime in the spring of 2023.

Is Moonage Daydream Coming to Theaters?

Moonage Daydream is currently playing in select IMAX theaters nationwide. It will be available in IMAX until September 23rd, 2022. After that, it leaves IMAX theaters but will be still available theatrically in most major American cities.

Related: 'Moonage Daydream' Companion Album Digs Deep Into David Bowie's Fifty-Year Discography

What is Moonage Daydream About?

The official synopsis for Moonage Daydream reads:

MOONAGE DAYDREAM: a cinematic odyssey exploring Bowie's creative, spiritual and musical journey. From the visionary mind of Brett Morgen, Moonage Daydream features captivating, never-before-seen footage and performances spanning David Bowie's 54-year career. The film includes 40 exclusively remastered Bowie songs and is the first film ever sanctioned by the Bowie Estate, with local access to the artists' archives.

Watch the Official Trailer for Moonage Daydream

Neon released the first teaser trailer for Moonage Daydream on May 23rd, 2022. The trailer set the tone for the documentary, starting out with a mysterious figure walking down a hallway with an ominous voiceover describing what could only be Mr. David Bowie himself. As the voiceover ends, an announcer asks, "Are you there, David Bowie?" It is then we are given our first glimpse at Bowie, as images from Bowie's concerts and other appearances move in quick succession with audio clips of Bowie over the decades. It is a mesmerizing teaser trailer that hints at a bold cinematic documentary promising to unequivocally match Bowie's larger-than-life persona.

More Movies Like Moonage Daydream

Amy - Directed by Asif Kapadia , this 2015 British documentary covers Amy Winehouse's life and struggle with substance abuse. Kapadia conducted more than 100 interviews with Winehouse's close friends and family. The documentary gives a tender, but honest look at Winehouse both as an artist and human being who lived with great pain, but also great joy. The documentary also includes various unheard tracks Winehouse had completed prior to her death in 2011. Similar to Moonage Daydream , Amy is an unprecedented and deeply personal look at Winehouse's life from her struggles to her victories.

What Happened, Miss Simone? - Directed by Liz Garbus , What Happened, Miss Simone? is a 2015 American documentary about the musician Nina Simone. The documentary chronicles Simone's life ranging from her time as a civil rights activist to her incredible career as a singer and musician. The documentary also features previously unreleased archival footage of Simone, sharing a distinct similarity to Moonage Daydream . It is a searingly personal look at one of the most renowned and powerful musicians of all time. What Happened, Miss Simone? was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 88th Academy Awards.

Cobain: Montage of Heck - Directed by Brett Morgen. Moonage Daydream isn't the first time Morgen has explored the inner life of a famous musician. Cobain: Montage of Heck is a 2015 American documentary that delves into the personal life of Kurt Cobain. The documentary explores nearly every facet of Cobain's life, from his birth in 1967 to his rise to fame as the frontman of Nirvana. If Moonage Daydream and Montage of Heck have anything in common, it is Morgen's affectionate love of deconstructing famous icons. In both films, Morgan takes these mythic, larger-than-life figures and makes them feel real and human.

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Movie Reviews

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David Bowie played many personas in his lifetime. A space alien, a dapper fashion icon, an astronaut, a goblin king, whatever cocaine fever dream The Thin White Duke was supposed to be. What Bowie never played was boring, and I’m sorry to say that for the most part, that’s what you’ll find in Gabriel Range ’s fan fictionalized portrait of the British singer’s first trip to America.

In “Stardust,” we find David Bowie ( Johnny Flynn ) on the rise but frustrated. He’s broken out with “Space Oddity,” but now what? He’s too niche to be considered mainstream, but still he wants to achieve that rock star status. So, he crosses the pond to meet an enthusiastic publicist, Ron Oberman ( Marc Maron ), for a tour. Only when Bowie arrives, he learns he can’t actually play in the States, not legally anyway. So, he’s booked a series of private concerts, at which Oberman will try to talk him up to the right people. Along the way, Oberman tries to navigate their way through the thornier sides of the music industry and America. 

Christopher Bell and Gabriel Range’s story had potential. After all, “Stardust” is set in 1971, a crucial moment in Bowie’s career. The trip to the U.S. helped inspire the creation of his Ziggy Stardust persona, one of the earliest reinventions for young David Jones that launched his career into the stratosphere. Bowie could have been a one-hit wonder, a curio who gave us “Space Oddity” and faded back into obscurity. Yet what makes it to the screen is just that—the concept. The narrative loses steam as it rolls on, its signs of life fading with every rock star biopic cliche that shows up, from the “people just don’t understand” musings to the distressed marriage. 

Perhaps the worst of these is the way the movie weaves in Bowie’s half-brother Terry Burns (Derek Moran) as the specter of mental illness, something to torture the film’s sensitive genius and remind him that he could lose his mind just the same. The movie posits that Terry’s therapeutic treatment inspired Bowie to perform as other personas, but by that point in his life, the musician had already studied theater and mime, which the film even makes into a running gag. The audience is supposed to believe that a false cathartic moment with his brother led to the idea of playing different characters on stage? Not likely, but then again, this fictionalized account of Bowie goes west offers little basis in reality. 

What is true is that Bowie really did crash land at the Oberman’s family home in Silver Springs, Maryland, in 1971. “David Bowie, this is my mother,” Oberman says as he picks the artist up at the airport, leading him not to the nice black car but the green family vehicle parked in front of it. It’s one of a handful of funny moments Maron and Flynn manage in their buddy road trip movie that plays a bit like “Driving Mr. Bowie.” There’s a power differential between the two men, artist and publicist, someone whose career is on the rise and the other who is losing his standing, those who have potential and the people around them who try to get others to see what they see. But the movie never really digs into that. 

Instead, Flynn channels the shadow of a ghost of Bowie. His portrayal is that of a passive wallflower, not a man who knew when to stay silent to keep an air of mystery. His wife Angie ( Jena Malone ), Oberman, and managers argue over him, but he retreats and pouts that he just wants to be a star. It's like a shallow facsimile of the artist. This might be personal projecting, but one doesn’t usually study pantomime to become a rock god. Bowie became a headliner to make the weirdo art he wanted to make. The movie understands that differently. 

Maron, for his part, makes the most out of this nothing burger, occasionally injecting some life into a limp story and excellently delivering deadpanned lines, even if they’re of dad-joke quality. His presence props up Flynn’s uncharismatic performance, giving a moment like Bowie’s less-than-stellar pitstop to see Andy Warhol at The Factory some heart. As Oberman, Maron switches gears from feeling dejected over getting left out in the cold to trash talking Warhol to make Bowie feel better that the famous artist wouldn’t talk to him. The “never meet your heroes” sequence then becomes a genuine discussion about pop art. Maron’s eagerness, sometimes desperation, as Oberman to convince journalists and radio hosts to “give the kid a chance” is the most convincing performance in the movie. 

However, Angie Bowie is given a much less charitable treatment. She may be a controversial figure in her husband’s story, but “Stardust” really only provides her space to act like a terror, one more power hungry than any of the musicians in the room. She might be the stage wife to outdo all stage wives, at one point barking into the phone at Bowie, “You can’t come home until you make it.” Poor Malone practically spends all of her time on-screen yelling, scowling, or exerting her control. Angie’s made to be quite the definition of a one-note character, one that smacks of sexist tropes. 

The lack of a solid narrative means “Stardust” cannot compensate for the production’s modest budget, which lacks a noticeable amount of Bowie songs and includes many scenes filmed on the cheap. A crowd scene of outreached hands is made up of maybe 25 people, numerous driving scenes look like they were filmed in a studio, and so on. This is neither “ Bohemian Rhapsody ” or “ Rocketman ” levels of recreated concerts and dramatized inner demons. This is a rough draft that seems to be missing quite a few elements to make a good idea into a great movie.

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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New David Bowie Film Moonage Daydream Gets First Trailer: Watch

The first trailer for Moonage Daydream , a new film about David Bowie that is neither biopic nor documentary, is here. Footage shows Bowie emerging on-stage in the Ziggy Stardust era, before a Bowie voiceover recites a passage from Mr. Rice’s Secret , a film in which he starred in 1998: “It’s what you do in life that’s important, not how much time you have,” he says over rousing music. Watch the trailer for the “cinematic odyssey” below.

Moonage Daydream will premiere at Cannes Film Festival tonight (May 23) before arriving in theaters in September. The movie, which Bowie’s estate approved, features unreleased 35mm and 16mm footage from his personal archives. Brett Morgen, best known for Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck , directed, wrote, and produced the film. It is set to arrive on HBO and HBO Max in spring 2023.

Last November, Variety reported that the film would be “neither documentary nor biography, but an immersive cinematic experience built, in part, upon thousands of hours of never before seen material,” citing a source. It was also reported that Tony Visconti , Bowie’s longtime producer, served as the film’s music producer.

Revisit “ The Man Who Fell to Earth Is More Than David Bowie Playing Himself ” on the Pitch.

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'moonage daydream' isn't the bowie biography you're probably expecting.

Ari Shapiro

Sarah Handel

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with director Brett Morgen on his documentary on David Bowie, Moonage Daydream . It's the first film since Bowie's death in 2016 that had the full cooperation of his estate.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

David Bowie

(1947-2016)

Who Was David Bowie?

Rock star David Bowie's first hit was the song "Space Oddity" in 1969. The original pop chameleon, Bowie became a fantastical sci-fi character for his breakout Ziggy Stardust album. He later co-wrote "Fame" with Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, which became his first American No. 1 single in 1975. An accomplished actor, Bowie starred in The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Shortly after releasing his final album, Bowie died from cancer on January 10, 2016.

Early Years

Known as a musical chameleon for his ever-changing appearance and sound, David Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, South London, England, on January 8, 1947.

Bowie showed an interest in music from an early age and began playing the saxophone at age 13. He was greatly influenced by his half-brother Terry, who was nine years older and exposed the young Bowie to the worlds of rock music and beat literature.

But Terry had his demons, and his mental illness, which forced the family to commit him to an institution, haunted Bowie for a good deal of his life. Terry committed suicide in 1985, a tragedy that became the focal point of Bowie's later song, "Jump They Say."

After graduating from Bromley Technical High School at 16, Bowie started working as a commercial artist. He also continued to play music, hooking up with a number of bands and leading a group himself called Davy Jones and the Lower Third. Several singles came out of this period, but nothing that gave the young performer the kind of commercial traction he needed.

Eventually, Bowie went out on his own. But after recording an unsuccessful solo album, Bowie exited the music world for a temporary period. Like so much of his later life, these few years proved to be incredibly experimental for the young artist. For several weeks in 1967 he lived at a Buddhist monastery in Scotland. Bowie later started his own mime troupe called Feathers.

Around this time he also met the American-born Angela Barnett. The two married on March 20, 1970, and had one son together, whom they nicknamed "Zowie," in 1971, before divorcing in 1980. He is now known by his birth name, Duncan Jones.

By early 1969, Bowie had returned full time to music. He signed a deal with Mercury Records and that summer released the single "Space Oddity." Bowie later said the song came to him after seeing Stanley Kubrick 's 2001: A Space Odyssey: "I went stoned out of my mind to see the movie and it really freaked me out, especially the trip passage."

The song quickly resonated with the public, sparked in large part by the BBC's use of the single during its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The song enjoyed later success after being released in the United States in 1972, climbing to number 15 on the charts.

Bowie's next album, The Man Who Sold the World (1970), further catapulted him to stardom. The record offered up a heavier rock sound than anything Bowie had done before and included the song "All the Madmen," about his institutionalized brother, Terry. His next work, 1971's Hunky Dory , featured two hits: the title track that was a tribute to Andy Warhol , the Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan ; and "Changes," which came to embody Bowie himself.

Meet Ziggy Stardust

As Bowie's celebrity profile increased, so did his desire to keep fans and critics guessing. He claimed he was gay and then introduced the pop world to Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's imagining of a doomed rock star, and his backing group, The Spiders from Mars.

His 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars , made him a superstar. Dressed in wild costumes that spoke of some kind of wild future, Bowie, portraying Stardust himself, signaled a new age in rock music, one that seemed to officially announce the end of the 1960s and the Woodstock era.

More Changes

But just as quickly as Bowie transformed himself into Stardust, he changed again. He leveraged his celebrity and produced albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. In 1973, he disbanded the Spiders and shelved his Stardust persona. Bowie continued on in a similar glam rock style with the album Aladdin Sane (1973), which featured "The Jean Genie" and "Let's Spend the Night Together," his collaboration with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Around this time he showed his affection for his early days in the English mod scene and released Pin Ups , an album filled with cover songs originally recorded by a host of popular bands, including Pretty Things and Pink Floyd.

By the mid 1970s, Bowie had undergone a full-scale makeover. Gone were the outrageous costumes and garish sets. In two short years, he released the albums David Live (1974) and Young Americans (1975). The latter album featured backing vocals by a young Luther Vandross and included the song "Fame," co-written with John Lennon and Carlos Alomar, which became Bowie’s first American number one single.

In 1980, Bowie, now living in New York, released Scary Monsters , a much-lauded album that featured the single "Ashes to Ashes," a sort of updated version of his earlier "Space Oddity."

Three years later Bowie recorded Let's Dance (1983), an album that contained a bevy of hits such as the title track, "Modern Love" and "China Girl," and featured the guitar work of Stevie Ray Vaughan .

Of course, Bowie's interests didn't just reside with music. His love of film helped land him the title role in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). In 1980, Bowie starred on Broadway in The Elephant Man , and was critically acclaimed for his performance. In 1986, he starred as Jareth, the Goblin King, in the fantasy-adventure film Labyrinth , directed by Jim Henson and produced by George Lucas . Bowie performed opposite teenage Jennifer Connolly and a cast of puppets in the movie, which became a 1980s cult classic.

Over the next decade, Bowie bounced back and forth between acting and music, with the latter especially suffering. Outside of a couple of modest hits, Bowie's musical career languished. His side project with musicians Reeve Gabrels and Tony and Hunt Sales, known as Tin Machine, released two albums, Tin Machine (1989) and Tin Machine II (1991), which both proved to be flops. His much-hyped album Black Tie White Noise (1993), which Bowie described as a wedding gift to his new wife, supermodel Iman , also struggled to resonate with record buyers.

Oddly enough, the most popular Bowie creation of that period was Bowie Bonds, financial securities the artist himself backed with royalties from his pre-1990 work. Bowie issued the bonds in 1997 and earned $55 million from the sale. The rights to his back catalog were returned to him when the bonds matured in 2007.

Later Years

In 2004, Bowie received a major health scare when he suffered a heart attack while on stage in Germany. He made a full recovery and went on to work with bands such as Arcade Fire and with the actress Scarlett Johansson on her album Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008), a collection of Tom Waits covers.

Bowie, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, was a 2006 recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He kept a low profile for several years until the release of his 2013 album The Next Day , which skyrocketed to number 2 on the Billboard charts. The following year, Bowie released a greatest hits collection, Nothing Has Changed , which featured the new song "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)." In 2015, he collaborated on Lazarus , an Off-Broadway rock musical starring Michael C. Hall, which revisited his character from The Man Who Fell to Earth .

Bowie released Blackstar , his final album, on January 8, 2016, his 69th birthday. New York Times critic Jon Pareles noted that it was a "strange, daring and ultimately rewarding" work "with a mood darkened by bitter awareness of mortality." Only a few days later, the world would learn that the record had been made under difficult circumstances.

Death and Legacy

The music icon died on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday. A post on his Facebook page read: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer."

He was survived by his wife Iman, his son Duncan Jones and daughter Alexandria, and his step-daughter Zulekha Haywood. Bowie also left behind an impressive musical legacy, which included 26 albums. His producer and friend Tony Visconti wrote on Facebook that his last record, Blackstar , was "his parting gift."

Friends and fans were heartbroken at his passing. Iggy Pop wrote on Twitter that "David's friendship was the light of my life. I never met such a brilliant person." The Rolling Stones remembered him on Twitter as "a wonderful and kind man" and "a true original." And even those who didn't know personally felt the impact of his work. Kanye West tweeted, "David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations." Madonna posted "This great Artist changed my life!"

In February 2017, Bowie was recognized for the success of his final album, as he was named the winner in the Best Alternative Rock Album, Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical), Best Recording Package, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song categories at the Grammy Awards.

In late 2017, HBO unveiled a trailer for the documentary David Bowie: The Last Five Years , which explores the period in which the artist released his final two albums and brought his stage musical to life. Airing January 8, 2018, on what would have been his 71st birthday, the documentary features never-before-seen footage of Bowie and conversations with the musicians, producers and music video directors who worked with him on his final tour.

In the spring of 2018, Spotify's "David Bowie Subway Takeover" was unveiled in New York City's interconnected Broadway-Lafayette and Bleecker Street stations. An extension of the "David Bowie Is" exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, the subway displays included splashy photos, fan artwork and quotes from the musician, with each major piece containing a Spotify code for audio accompaniment.

That summer, it was announced that the earliest known studio recording of Bowie, from 1963, would go on sale at auction. Then still known by his birth name of David Jones and a member of a band called The Konrads, Bowie sang lead vocals on a song titled "I Never Dreamed" as part of an audition for Decca Records. The demo, never released, was discovered in the house of the group's former drummer and manager.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: David Bowie
• Birth Year: 1947
• Birth date: January 8, 1947
• Birth City: London
• Birth Country: England
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: David Bowie was an English rock star known for dramatic musical transformations, including his character Ziggy Stardust. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
• Astrological Sign: Capricorn
• Death Year: 2016
• Death date: January 10, 2016
• Death State: New York
• Death City: New York City

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: David Bowie Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/david-bowie
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: August 24, 2022
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• When I'm stuck for a closing to a lyric, I will drag out my last resort: overwhelming illogic.
• I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.

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David Bowie filmography

The filmography of musician and actor david bowie / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

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David Bowie (1947–2016) held leading roles in several feature films, including The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) (for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Actor), Just a Gigolo (1978), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), The Hunger (1983), Labyrinth (1986), The Linguini Incident (1991), and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Films in which he appeared in a supporting role or cameo include The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Zoolander (2001).

Bowie also appeared on several television series including Extras , Dream On , and the horror anthology series The Hunger . He won a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Special Class Special in 2003 for Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The 1970s with David Bowie (AMC).

Bowie was featured in a number of documentaries, films, and videos focusing on his career. He also appeared frequently in documentaries about other musicians.

David Bowie

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Biography by Wikipedia

David Robert Jones, known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer-songwriter and actor. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, with his music and stagecraft having a significant impact on popular music. During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at over 100 million records worldwide, made him one of the world's best-selling music artists. In the UK, he was awarded ten platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, and released eleven number-one albums. In the US, he received five platinum and nine gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

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Clive Owen Says David Bowie ‘Has More to Do With Me Being an Actor’ Than Anyone Else: ‘He Showed Me You Can Create Worlds’

By Nick Holdsworth

Nick Holdsworth

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Clive Owen has not forgotten his roots. Growing up in a working-class family in Coventry in the 1970s U.K., he yearned to explore different roles in life – and the youth wing of the city’s civic Belgrade Theatre gave him that opportunity.

More than four decades later, Owen — who most recently appeared in “Monsieur Spade” as an aging Sam Spade drawn back into the game to solve a post-World War II murder mystery in the south of France — credits that experience as the foundation for his career.

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“I went back to the theater recently to do a talk,” he tells Variety at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic, where he received the President’s Award Saturday night.

“I wanted to tell the kids there that it is possible [to have a career as an actor],” he says. “Places like that youth theater are essential in impoverished cities. We need to finance those things.”

The other great influence in a career that has spanned the stage (he played Dan in the London National Theatre production of Patrick Marber’s “Closer” in 1997) and film – including Mike Nichols’ screen version of the play in 2004, where he played Larry — is David Bowie.

“Bowie probably has more to do with me being an actor than any actors. He showed me that you can create worlds,” he says. “My imagination was fired — that was the beginning of going into acting. It was Bowie that provoked my understanding of the art.”

He also has an attention to detail that he credits to working with the late British character actor Peter Vaughan on British TV series “Chancer” 30 years ago.

“Vaughan was always very prepared, concentrated,” he says. “He really taught me about how — in film or TV acting — it is all about conservation of energy and being ready when you are needed. You only really get a few minutes each day where you are going have to deliver. It is all around being ready for that moment.”

It was a great lesson for later in his career, when he worked with Stephen Soderbergh – who was also a guest at this year’s KVIFF – on the two-season television series “The Knick” in 2014-2015.

“Soderbergh does so few takes. He is incredibly economical,” he says. “It took me a little while to learn that he shoots in the order of the edit. Rehearses. Shoots it like that. He gets in a car when he wraps and edits, and by 10 p.m. you have the finished scene.”

He adds, “Soderbergh raises everybody’s game. He is very quietly demanding. You have to come prepared. No monitors. No places to sit down. You walk onto that set it is hushed tone and everybody is clear: we are here for this. That, for me, is heaven.”

In the transient world of screen and TV acting, he has met many of his fellow thespians, but says most of his enduring friendships have been forged with directors, including Soderbergh and Spike Lee.

When Spike Lee asked him to be in “Inside Job,” a film where the script demanded his bank robber character wear a mask at all times, he was unsure. But after being invited to a basketball game by Lee in New York – during which nothing was said about the role – the director finally asked the question as Owen’s driver dropped Lee home.

“He asked, ‘Are you in?’” Owen recalls. “After such an evening at the basketball, I could only say, ‘Yes.’”

Owen is tight-lipped about upcoming projects, saying that there are a couple that are not quite over the line yet — but it is a safe bet that audiences won’t have to wait long to see him again on the big or small screen.

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David Bowie films

1. Labyrinth

2. Basquiat

3. The Hunger

4. The Man Who Fell to Earth

5. Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces

6. David Bowie: Lazarus

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