David Bowie Dies At 69

David Bowie, who has died of cancer a few days after turning 69, was a rock musician of rare originality and talent; he was also, variously, a producer, painter, film actor, art critic, the progenitor of bisexual chic, a family man and an astute multi-millionaire. Endlessly manipulating his public identity, Bowie was once rumoured to be an alien from outer space, and suggested in the mid-1970s that Britain needed a fascist prime minister. “I am an actor,” he said. “My whole professional life is an act.” Although he drew heavily on other artists for his inspiration, he had a wealth of new ideas of his own and wrote some of the most quirky and poignant songs of the 1970s and 1980s: Space Oddity, Changes, Fame, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and Aladdin Sane. continue