Having already brought Ziggy Stardust to life on his breakthrough concept album a few years prior, Bowie had plenty of experience playing tragic extraterrestrials before bringing his otherworldly elegance to the role of Thomas Jerome Newton, a wandering member of a drought-stricken alien race who comes to Earth for our water and winds up drowning in gin and existential angst.
Ready for a David Bowie movies marathon? The artist was never afraid to take his performance to a new level, especially in these 10 standout film roles (fine, one’s a TV show). Some of David Bowie’s roles, like artist Andy Warhol, make sense, and others, like a cocaine-crazy vampire, make sense only for someone with Ziggy Stardust as an alter ego.