A postmodern Renaissance man and Dadaist, the mercurial David Bowie has never limited himself to just making music. An early interest in theater led him to train as a mime and to start the Beckenham Arts Lab to experiment with theater and music. To finance the project, he signed with Mercury Records, putting out the album "Man of Words, Man of Music" (1969), which included his first hit "Space Oddity", a sensation at the time of the US moon landing. Renowned for exploring the fringes of pop music, Bowie has made a career out of change, managing to retain his reputation as a creative, experimental, thinking artist committed to trying new things, even at the expense of selling albums.
The prime exponent of "glitter rock" during the 1970s beginning with his flamboyant Ziggy Stardust persona, Bowie later toned down the "glam", added soul standards to his repertoire and appeared as the Thin White Duke in baggy Oxford trousers, without make-up, his hair trim and naturally blond. He battled drug addiction and emerged victoriously to record some of his best work with producer Brian Eno, the three albums "Low" (1977), "Heroes" (1977) and "Lodger" (1979), which did not sell. Though "Scary Monsters" (1980) was an uncompromised artistic statement and a big hit, "Let's Dance" (1983) made him rich while nearly bankrupting him artistically. For the first and only time, he began trying to meet other people's expectations for him, rather than doing what he found interesting.
Bowie's last hit single was "Blue Jean" in 1984, but since aligning himself with guitarist Reeves Gabrels in the late 80s, the chameleon has resumed his watch for cutting-edge material with which to reinvent himself. He produced the alternative sound of Tin Machine (much to the chagrin of many fans) before returning to the sound of "Low" with "Black Tie White Noise" (1993) and then fittingly reuniting with Eno for the concept album "Outside" (1995), a dense, difficult work and harbinger of things to come from the pair. Bowie's album "Earthling" (1997), released soon after his 50th birthday, exhibited his enthusiasm for techno's drum and base while his new flaming-haired incarnation (a cross between Ziggy and the Thin White Duke) was associating with reigning musicians of the day like Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins and the Cure's Robert Smith.
Though he made his first British TV, film and commercial appearances before achieving his musical success, Bowie attracted widespread notice as the alien visitor--a role well suited to his slightly aloof, deftly cultivated public image--in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" (1976). After making his Broadway debut in 1981 as John Merrick in "The Elephant Man", he delivered a solid performance as a World War II British prisoner in Nagisa Oshima's first English-language film, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (1982) and starred as a 150-year-old man whose aging scene was the highlight of "The Hunger" (1983). Bowie went on to play Jareth, King of the Goblins, in Jim Henson's "Labyrinth" (1986) and twice worked with Martin Scorsese in "Into the Night" (1985) and "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), in which he played Pontius Pilate.
Bowie, who has performed songs frequently for feature soundtracks in addition to contributing original music to several films, served as an executive producer on "Magic Hunter" and "Mesmer" (both 1994) and "Gentle Into the Night" (1996). While neither "The Linguini Incident" (1991) nor "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" (1992) found much favor, his turn as Andy Warhol in the independent "Basquiat" (1996) was right on target. Bowie had known Warhol (immortalizing him in the 1972 song "Andy Warhol") and took great delight during filming in frequenting some of the artist's old haunts in full makeup and wig to watch the heads whirl at his apparition. Though he has painted for years, the former commercial artist added to his Renaissance Man resume by exhibiting his work during the 90s and co-founding the art book publishing house 21 in 1997.