R.I.P. David Bowie Dies From Cancer

David Bowie 2003

(Reuters) --  David Bowie, a music legend who used daringly androgynous displays of sexuality and glittering costumes to frame legendary rock hits "Ziggy Stardust" and "Space Oddity", has died of cancer.

He was 69.

"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," read a statement on Bowie's Facebook page dated Sunday.

January 10 2016 - David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle... https://t.co/ENRSiT43Zy

— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) January 11, 2016

"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," read a statement on Bowie's Facebook page dated Sunday.

Born David Jones in the Brixton area of south London, Bowie took up the saxophone at 13. He shot to fame in Europe with 1969's "Space Oddity".

But it was Bowie's 1972 portrayal of a doomed bisexual alien rock star, Ziggy Stardust, that propelled him to global stardom. Bowie and Ziggy, wearing outrageous costumes, makeup and bright orange hair, took the rock world by storm.

Bowie said he was gay in an interview in the Melody Maker newspaper in 1972, coinciding with the launch of his androgynous persona, with red lightning bolt across his face and flamboyant clothes.

He told Playboy four years later he was bisexual, but in the eighties he told Rolling Stone magazine that the declaration was "the biggest mistake I ever made", and he was "always a closet heterosexual".



The excesses of a hedonistic life of the real rock star was taking its toll. In a reference to his prodigious appetite for cocaine, he said: "“I blew my nose one day in California," he said. “And half my brains came out. Something had to be done."

Data curated by PrettyFamous

He stopped touring after his 2003–2004 Reality Tour, last performing live in 2006. Bowie's latest studio album, Blackstar, was released on 8 January 2016, his 69th birthday, just two days before his death.

Throughout his career, he has sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide.  In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 39th on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and 23rd on their list of the best singers of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

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