David Bowie's top film roles, ranked from worst to best

27 January 2026, 14:18

David Bowie in Zoolander, Labyrinth and The Man Who Fell To Earth. Picture: Alamy

By Mayer Nissim

As well as scaling the charts, David Bowie was hooked to the silver screen.

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David Bowie was one of the greatest figures in music history.

As a singer, a songwriter and performer, there were few that could get close to his level of influence or brilliance.

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In his pop career, he was no stranger to playing different roles.

Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke... Bowie could inhabit characters in records and on stage like few others.

He also acted in a more traditional way with enviable range, from The Elephant Man on Broadway in 1980 to voicing Lord Royal Highness in an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants in 2007.

It was on the big screen that he played some of his most famous roles, and below we rank his major movie roles from the worst all the way up to the very best.

We've stuck to his major screen roles rather than any blink and you'll miss 'em cameos, albeit with a couple of movie-stealing exceptions that more than earned their place thanks to DB's pure star power.

Just A Gigolo

Just a Gigolo (1978) HD Official Trailer

Just a Gigolo had all the ingredients to be a massive hit.
Hot actor-turned-director David Hemmings behind the camera. David Bowie leading the picture as Prussian officer Paul Ambrosius von Przygodski. A supporting cast including Kim Novak and Marlene Dietrich.
The only problem is it wasn't very good. "My 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one," said Bowie. Ouch.
Everybody Loves Sunshine

Everybody Loves Sunshine aka B.U.S.T.E.D. 1999 movie trailer

One of three, odd back-to-back-to-back late 1990s/early 2000s movies from David Bowie, who was in an interesting phase musically, slinking from his wildly experimental and electronic 1. Outside and Earthling to the more classic Bowie pose of hours...
This 1999 indie Britflick saw Bowie star as an older gangster opposite fellow junglist Goldie and a pre-L Word Rachel Shelley. It's fine enough to pass the time, but not much more.
Gunslinger's Revenge

David Bowie - IL Mio West - ITALIAN CINEMA ADVERT - Italy - 1998 Version 2

Aka Il mio West (My Best), 1998's Gunslinger's Revenge was a decent hit in its native Italy but not anywhere else, despite David Bowie and Harvey Keitel starring alongside Leonardo Pieraccioni.
It takes 45 minutes for Bowie's Jack Sikora to turn up, gunning for Keitel's Johnny, and he's a weird if arresting presence until his ignominious and untimely end.
Mr. Rice's Secret

Mr Ricés Secret Trailer

David Bowie led Nicholas Kendall odd 2000 weepie-with-a-supernatural-twist, playing the title character who leaves a load of notes after his death for 12-year-old cancer patient Owen (Bill Switzer) to help him appreciate life.
"All people, no matter who they are, they all wish they'd appreciated life more," says Mr Rice in a flashback. "It's what you do in life that's important, not how much time you have." Sob.
Absolute Beginners

Trailer: Absolute Beginners

Julien Temple's hyped, slated and to be honest over-maligned musical, based on the second part of Colin MacInnes' London trilogy.
Absolute Beginners was written in 1959, and looking back it feels not that Temple (or Bowie) were necessarily wrong for the adaptation, but maybe 1986 was the wrong time for it to be made. Too much gloss (and too big a budget), and not nearly enough grit.
Eddie O'Connell, Patsy Kensit, James Fox (and Ray Davies, Anita Morris, Steven Berkoff and Sade) give it their all, as did DB himself. 100% for effort. But it was a critical and commercial flop that was blamed for doing real damage to the British movie business. It's not as bad as all that, but definitely a tale of what might have been.
The Hunger

The Hunger Official Trailer #1 - Susan Sarandon Movie (1983) HD

Style over substance, sexy, weird, goth, cult... you can see why David Bowie was attracted to The Hunger.
He was excellent in Tony Scott's love triangle vampire erotic horror alongside Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve.
The critics didn't love it (but when did they ever love genre flicks?) but it's a really strong performance in a memorable movie that also featured Bowie superfans Bauhaus playing their goth classic 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'.
Basquiat

Official Trailer BASQUIAT (1996, Jeffrey Wright, Benicio Del Toro, Julian Schnabel)

Julian Schnabel's 1996 biopic of graffiti artist-turned-neo-expressionist pioneer Jean-Michel Basquiat treated not just its title character with real care but also its supporting cast, including David Bowie as Andy Warhol.
Bowie and Warhol had an odd, brittle relationship. (Andy HATED Bowie's song named after him), but he was someone who truly understood Andy in a way that many didn't, and this performance was one that properly captured Andy, where others only served up cliché.
"He wanted to be very superficial," Bowie said of Warhol. "And seemingly emotionless, indifferent, just like a dead fish.
"Lou Reed described him most profoundly when he once told me they should bring a doll of Andy on the market: a doll that you wind up and doesn't do anything. But I managed to observe him well, and that was a helping hand for the film."
The Prestige

The Prestige (2006) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

"Why so serious?" is ironically something that be said of Christopher Nolan at times. For all the brilliance of his films, sometimes they're a little too weighty and lacking in a sense of fun and mischief.
So David Bowie's OTT and deliciously camp performance as Nikola Tesla is wonderful and welcome, accent and all.
Bowie originally turned the role down, until lifelong fan Nolan flew out to New York to convince him in person.
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence Official Trailer HD

Nagisa Ōshima's 1983 prisoner of war movie caught Bowie at an odd time, coming between the massive success of Let's Dance and the less-than-stellar Tonight/Never Let Me Down double header.
Nevertheless it's one of his very best performances in one of his finest movies. Despite the acting excellence around him, he doesn't just hold his own but arguably steals the whole thing.
Bowie plays Maj. Jack "Strafer" Celliers opposite Tom Conti's Lieutenant-Colonel John Lawrence while the cast also includes not just YMO legend Ryuichi Sakamoto but also 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano
The Snowman

The Snowman - David Bowie Intro

Okay, this was a film-for-TV rather than the cinema. AND David Bowie wasn't even on the original version (author Raymond Briggs did the honours).
But while Briggs himself wasn't completely convinced by David Bowie's intro to The Snowman, it's become the definitive version.
Yes, it's a little hammy, but it's so incredibly sweet and charming that it's absolutely become a holiday tradition to stick it on every year in anticipation of Christmas.
And the lovely story of Bowie's son finding that old scarf years later adds an extra layer of seasonal loveliness to the whole thing.
The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers

Martin Scorsese's gangster movies may scoop up all the attention, but from After Hours to Kundun and beyond, he's really always had remarkable range, and he tackled this 1988 adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial 1955 novel with incredible skill and tact.
Willem Defoe excels in the unplayable role of Jesus, Harvey Keitel is brilliant in the conflicted role of Judas. And David Bowie plays none other than Pontius Pilate, the fifth governor of the Judaea who sentenced Jesus to crucifixion. Not an easy role, but he absolutely delivers.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) - David Bowie as Agent Jefferies - David Lynch

One of two consecutive small roles for David Bowie that earn their high spot here for being so utterly memorable.
In David Lynch's divisive Twin Peaks prequel, a Tin Machine-era Bowie plays long lost Agent Phillip Jeffries (who is NOT going to talk about Judy, okay).
He apparently hated his accent, but we think it's perfect for all the weirdness around him.
Bowie was tapped up to reprise his role in Twin Peaks: The Return but was sadly too ill. Lynch recast him with a talking kettle, because of course he did.
Zoolander

David Bowie - FILM - Zoolander - JUST THE BOWIE BITS - 2001

David Bowie's cameo in Zoolander saw him play a fictionalised version of himself as the judge of a walk off between Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson).
"It was just too funny a script to walk past," Bowie said. "An absolute hoot!"
He wasn't wrong, and he helped make one of the funniest and most quotable films of the decade ("What is this, a centre for ANTS!") funnier still.
The Man Who Fell To Earth

David Bowie stars in THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH - 4K Restoration - Official Trailer

A toss-up for the top two. The role David Bowie was born to play. Walter Tevis's 1963 novel was a tight, brilliant allegory for outsiderdom and alienation, feelings a coked up and strung out Bowie understood as much as anyone at that stage in his life.
Nic Roeg's adaptation, which co-starred Rip Torn as Nathan Bryce, and Candy Clark as Mary-Lou, was a total masterpiece.
You could call it a standout bit of sci-fi, classic British movie or incredible example of 1970s cinema because it's all those things, but it's something more than all of that, and David Bowie's performance is the centrepiece.
Labyrinth

Labyrinth: 40th Anniversary | Official 4K Trailer | Park Circus

If The Man Who Fell To Earth was Bowie channelling himself, then Labyrinth is pure performance.
Beautifully cast in Jim Henson's muppety musical, David Bowie is Jareth, the Goblin King, who takes ownership of a young baby Toby who must be rescued by his older sister Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) after she recklessly wishes for his otherworldly abduction.
Ostensibly a kids' movie, it's much more magical than that. Connelly is great, as are all the magical creatures, but it's Bowie who reigns supreme with his moody magnificence, excellent one-liners ("Prince of the land of stench!") and saucy tights/codpiece combo.
And there's a fair argument that Bowie's songs on the soundtrack (especially 'Magic Dance', 'Within You' and 'Underground') are superior to all else he was recording either side of it. A classic.

Bonus: Extras

David Bowie - Extras (Season 2 Episode 2)

We've stuck to big screen roles for our proper ranking, but couldn't leave this completely off our list.

Your mileage may vary with several of the stars who played "themselves" in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Extras, but Bowie's turn in the second episode of series two was understated and hilarious, and... does it count as an unreleased David Bowie song?

We'd describe the scene, but don't to ruin it. Watch (or rewatch!) it above and we dare you not to laugh.