David Bowie facts: Songs, marriages, children, eye colour and tragic death of the rock 'n' roll icon

28 April 2025, 09:52 | Updated: 29 April 2025, 11:01

David Bowie was a true icon of music and pop culture.

From his Ziggy Stardust breakthrough to his Blackstar goodbye, David Bowie was a leading individual in the music industry for decades

He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century (and beyond), and with good reason.

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David Bowie was particularly known for his groundbreaking material during the 1970s and his near-constant reinvention and visual projects.

He sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In the UK alone, he scored 11 number one albums and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Bowie's final live performance was at a charity event in 2006, and following a return to form with two highly-praised albums, he died in 2016, just days after his 69th birthday.

1. Where was David Bowie born and who were his parents?

   

   David Bowie was born on January 8, 1947. Real name David Robert Jones, David was born in Brixton, London.

   His mother, Margaret Mary 'Peggy' (née Burns, 1913-2001), was born at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Cheriton, Kent. She worked as a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

   His father, Haywood Stenton 'John' Jones (1912-1969), was from Doncaster, Yorkshire, and worked as a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's.

   In 1953, David moved with his family to Bickley and then Bromley Common, before settling in Sundridge Park in 1955.

2. Did David Bowie really have different coloured eyes?

   

   If you look at pictures of Bowie, it might look like he suffered from heterochromia – different coloured yes. But actually that wasn't the case at all.

   What actually happened was that a 14-year-old Bowie had a major fight with his best pal George Underwood over a girl (what else).

   "I hit him," George told Mojo years later.

   "I didn't know until a week later that he'd been rushed to hospital, so I went to see him and said, 'It's not worth it over a girl', and we stayed friends."

   The trauma didn't trigger heterochromia (both eyes were still blue) but instead something called anisocoria.

   After a couple of operations, David thankfully didn't lose either his eye or his sight, but his left eye was left permanently dilated.

   One pupil was always enlarged, which sometimes gave the illusion of the eyes being different colours.

3. How did David Bowie get into music?

   

   David Bowie, he would have been the first to admit, was desperate to become a star, but it took a long time coming.

   He sang in the school choir but was no sort of superstar. He played the recorder pretty well. But it was the influence of rock and roll (and Jazz via his half-brother Terry Burns) that set the path.

   Bowie played the saxophone in the early 1960s, and during the decade fronted bands like The Konrads, The King Bees and The Lower Third (and The Buzz and The Riot Squad) before eventually going it on his own.

   He released the self-titled David Bowie album in 1967 but it wasn't until 'Space Oddity' in 1969 that he really broke through, and the Hunky Dory album in 1971 that he actually emerged as a truly viable artist.

4. Who was David Bowie's wife and how many children did he have?

   

   David Bowie married his first wife, Mary Angela Barnett, aka Angie Bowie, in 1970, and they had an open marriage.

   Angela later said: "We got married so that I could [get a permit to] work.

   

   "I didn't think it would last and David said, before we got married, 'I'm not really in love with you' and I thought that's probably a good thing."

   Their son Duncan was born in 1971, and was at first known as Zowie. Bowie and Angela divorced in 1980, and he received custody of their son.

   

   Duncan Jones is now a famous film director, best known for directing the films Moon (2009), Source Code (2011) and Warcraft (2016).

   In 1992, Bowie married Somali-American model Iman in a private ceremony in Lausanne.

   

   They had one daughter, Alexandria 'Lexi' Zahra Jones, born in August 2000.

   While she's not courted the limelight quite like her famous parents (or half-brother), Lexi did quietly release her own debut solo album in 2025.

5. What were David Bowie's biggest albums and songs?

   

   David Bowie - Heroes (Official Video)

   With David Bowie's half century in music, it's no easy feat to pick out his biggest hits.

   When it comes to his albums, it's the 1970s that rightly get most of the attention,

   Early on there was Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs, the mid-decade classics Young Americans and Station to Station and the "Berlin Trilogy" of Low, "Heroes" and Lodger.

   Even after the 1970s Bowie was knocking out classic albums. You had the commercial peak of Let's Dance (produced with Chic's Nile Rodgers) at the start of the 1980s, the return to form of Black Tie/White Noise, 1. Outside and Earthling in the 1990s, and then his 2010s return with The Next Day and Blackstar.

   Across all those albums (and more), David Bowie's biggest songs include:

   • Space Oddity
   • The Man Who Sold The World
   • Changes
   • Life on Mars
   • Starman
   • The Jean Genie
   • Diamond Dogs
   • Young Americans
   • Fame
   • "Heroes"
   • Ashes to Ashes
   • Let's Dance
   • China Girl
   • Modern Love
   • Under Pressure (with Queen)
   • Lazarus

6. What films did David Bowie star in?

   

   As well as conquering the pop charts, David Bowie made a name for himself in Hollywood

   Whether it was straight drama, musical, comedy or science fiction, Bowie always kept us hooked to the silver screen.

   His biggest screen roles included:

   • The Man Who Fell to Earth
   • Just a Gigolo
   • Baal
   • Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
   • Absolute Beginners
   • Labyrinth
   • The Last Temptation of Christ
   • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
   • Zoolander
   • The Prestige

7. When did David Bowie die?

   

   On January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of the album Blackstar, David Bowie died from liver cancer in his New York City apartment.

   Bowie had been diagnosed 18 months earlier, but had not gone public with his illness.

   The singer had insisted that he did not want a funeral, and he was cremated in New Jersey on January 12.

   As stated in his will, his ashes were scattered in a Buddhist ceremony in Bali, Indonesia.