Few icons define the word 'transformative' as effectively as David Bowie. Today we all woke up to the sad news that the legendary pop guru, style icon and actor tragically died from cancer, surrounded by his loving family.
Although Bowie is best remembered for his chameleonic persona, adopting identities as varied as Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, he also delivered a host of remarkable movie performances that linger in the mind. We've picked our nine favourites.
1) The Man Who Fell to Earth
The year: 1976
The lowdown: Bowie's movie debut came in director Nic Roeg's elusive, bizarre and utterly compelling sci-fi oddity. Bowie plays an alien who travels to our planet in search of water, only to awaken a thirst for alcohol that hastens a decline into sadness and despair. Given the enigmatic persona Bowie deployed throughout his music career, he's ideal casting as the mysterious extraterrestrial Thomas Jerome Newton: the dark and oddly compelling heart of Roeg's woozy movie head trip.
2) Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
The year: 1983
The lowdown: This peculiar World War II drama casts Bowie as British Major Jack Celliers who is captured and interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Whilst there, Celliers comes into contact with Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti), who urges his fellow Brits to see things from their captives' point-of-view. It's an odd mixture of acting styles and melodramatic plotting, perhaps best remembered for composer Ryuichi Sakamoto's haunting main theme, but that shouldn't overshadow what is one of Bowie's finest performances.
3) The Hunger
The year: 1983
The lowdown: As Bowie entered the eighties, he helped anticipate the MTV explosion with his glossy music videos and electronic experimentation. And he was doing it in the movies too. Case in point: Tony Scott's luridly erotic vampire movie in which vampire siblings Bowie and Catherine Deneuve are caught in a bloody love triangle with Susan Sarandon's sleep therapist. It's utterly barmy and drenched in eighties style – one of the quintessential movies of its period.
4) Labyrinth
The year: 1986
The lowdown: Let's face it, when you think of a David Bowie movie, chances are it's this one. The cult eighties fantasy sees Bowie play the big-haired Goblin King opposite a very young Jennifer Connelly, an extravaganza of fabulous design, memorable characters and a Bowie-infused soundtrack of classic hits including Underground, As the World Falls Down and Within You.
5) The Last Temptation of Christ
The year: 1988
The lowdown: Martin Scorsese's enormously controversial exploration of Christ's life features a sensitive performance from Willem Dafoe as the tormented Messiah. But the show is quietly stolen by an appearance from Bowie as Pontius Pilate, the Emperor who ultimately sends Jesus to his death. In just three minutes of screen time, Bowie sketches a quietly spoken, complex Pilate who veers between the sympathetic and the hostile: a powerful reminder of his underrated acting talents.
6) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The year: 1992
The lowdown: Cult filmmaker David Lynch doesn't play by the rules. And he therefore found his soulmate in the form of maverick Bowie. The director's utterly head-scrambling, divisive big-screen continuation of his seminal TV series features one of Bowie's most confounding appearances, playing long-lost FBI agent Philip Jeffries, With his Deep South accent and offbeat body language, not to mention the utterly indescribable nature of the scene in which he appears, Bowie once more stole the show.
7) Basquiat
The year: 1998
The lowdown: It was often hard for Bowie to find suitable roles to do his persona justice. However, he was perfectly cast as spaced-out pop culture icon Andy Warhol in this all-star biographical drama. The movie explores the life of postmodern artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (played by Jeffrey Wright), and features an all-star supporting cast including Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper. Even so, it's Bowie's inscrutable turn as the celebrated Warhol that makes for the most memorable moments.
8) Zoolander
The year: 2001
The lowdown: Anyone who's seen the riotously funny 'Little Fat Man' song on Ricky Gervais' Extras will know that Bowie isn't averse to tacking the mickey out of himself. But five years before that, he lampooned his image in fine style in Ben Stiller's cult fashionista comedy. Bowie appears as himself, arriving on screen to the sound of 'Let's Dance' as he announces a walk off between rival supermodels Zoolander (Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson). Only Bowie could make something so ridiculous look so cool.
9) The Prestige
The year: 2006
The lowdown: Bowie's enigmatic aura was brilliantly utilised by director Christopher Nolan in this masterful puzzle box thriller. A story of rival magicians in 19th century England, the movie hinges on a performance from Bowie as inventor and electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla, the man who ultimately helps Hugh Jackman's character Angier perfect the most extraordinary illusion of them all. In a movie packed with secrets, only Bowie's character knows them all – but is about to give them away? Is he heck.
What are your favourite David Bowie movie performances? Tweet your responses @Cineworld as we all cherish the memory of the legendary Star Man himself.
