Celebrity Deaths in 2016

David Bowie

8th January 1947 – 10th January 2016, 69 years old

The legendary English Rock singer, songwriter and actor David Bowie (real name David Robert Jones) died after 18-month battling with liver cancer, two days after the release of his final album “Blackstar”.

Photo by Hermione, Public Domain

David Bowie was a figure in popular music for over five decades, regarded by critics and musicians as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his music and stagecraft significantly influencing popular music. During his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at 140 million worldwide, made him one of the world's best-selling music artists.

Here are a few interesting facts about the king of Rock:

- Not all British love to drink tea. David Bowie was one of them. He had a “tea-phobia” because an accident he had with hot tea when he was 5 years old.

- David Bowie had turned down two big British honors: Commander (CBE) in 2000 and knighthood in 2003. He told The Sun, "I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for."

- With his British accent, David Bowie voiced the character of Lord Royal Highness on an episode of “SpongeBob Square Pants” in 2007.

- David Bowie and his friend George Underwood fought over a girl at school. George Underwood accidentally sliced his eye with a fingernail which caused Bowie’s left pupil was permanently dilated.

- David Bowie was also a painter and an art collector. One of his paintings sold at auction in late 1990 for $500. He was invited to join the editorial board of the journal Modern Painters in 1998. His art collection, which included works by Damien Hirst, Frank Auerbach, Henry Moore and Jean-Michel Basquiat among others, was valued at over £10m in mid-2016.