One of only a handful of rock artists to have maintained a steady recording career from the '60s through the '90s, David Bowie (David Robert Jones, Jan. 8, 1947, Brixton, South London) became a vastly influential rock figure in the '70s, known equally for the cutting- edge quality of his music--which consistently was well ahead of its time stylistically--and his brilliant incorporation of theatrical elements into live performance. Dubbed early on as 'the chameleon of rock,' Bowie spent his '70s heyday changing his look, sound, and style with the release of nearly every album. Though Bowie's arrival on the scene for most fans came via Ziggy Stardust, those captivated by the album soon discovered much had preceded it. By 1972, when Bowie appeared to be making his American "debut" with Ziggy Stardust, he was already a well- seasoned performer, fully aware of the ins and outs of the music business and by no means naive. Unlike most new artists of the '70s, who often took two or three records to fine-tune one particularly well-received aspect of their style or repertoire, Bowie had "arrived" complete and fully-formed. Bowie's international fame sprang not only from his music, but his work in films. One of few pop stars to have made a believable transition from music to the screen, the singer won praise for his work in The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), Just A Gigolo (1978), The Hunger (1983), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Absolute Beginners and Labyrinth (both 1986). Additionally, he starred in the Broadway play The Elephant Man in 1980 and the BBC-TV adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Baal in 1982. Yet the singer's most attention-grabbing acts in the late '90s were business-related: his launching of the davidbowie.com Internet service provider and his extremely successful sale of shares in himself (or,b more precisely, the profits from his projected future royalties) on the bond market, both of which helped catapult him into the ranks of the planet's wealthiest rock stars.
David Bowie