R.I.P. David Bowie 1947-2016

David Bowie has died after an 18-month battle with cancer at the age of 69.

The news of Bowie’s death broke via his official Facebook and Twitter pages with the message “January 10 2016 – David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief”.

The legendary David Bowie was one of the greatest performers in history. Bowie was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, UK on January 10, 1947.

Bowie has two children, son Duncan Jones (1971) and daughter Alexander ‘Lexi’ Jones (born 2000).

Duncan confirmed the death of his father posting:

Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all. pic.twitter.com/Kh2fq3tf9m

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 11, 2016

David Bowie released his first album ‘David Bowie’ in 1967 but it was the song ‘Space Oddity’ that first made him a global name. The song was written, recorded and released days after the world discovered “planet Earth was blue”.

Bowie’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’ and the song ‘Starman’ introduced the Ziggy Stardust character, the first of Bowie’s musical personas.

Bowie, a protégé of avant-garde mime artist Lindsay Kemp, also became an accomplished actor. His movie’s included ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’, ‘The Elephant Man’, ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’, ‘Labyrinth’, ‘Christiane F’ and ‘The Hunger’.

Bowie suffered a heart attack in Germany during the ‘Reality’ tour of 2003 and retired from live performance and recording for the next 10 years. On January 8, 2013 he returned with his first album in a decade ‘’The Next Day’. Last Friday he released another album ‘Blackstar’ on his 69th birthday.