The video will start in 8 Cancel

David Bowie enjoyed a glittering career spanning six decades that saw him become one of the biggest recording artists of all time.

Born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947, in Brixton, south London, Bowie's musical talent was clear from an early age and his final album Blackstar was only released on Friday.

The androgynous singer and songwriter also appeared in films including The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Hunger and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

Always interesting and controversial, we look back at some of the things you might not know about the music legend...

Leave your tributes for David Bowie here

1. How do you pronounce David Bowie's name?

It is 'Bowie' to rhyme with 'Joey', rather than as if it were similar to the acronym for The Only Way is Essex, TOWIE.

2. Did Bowie help start the credit crunch?

BBC journalist Evan Davis suggests he may have had a role. In 1997, Bowie sold bonds on his future back catalogue royalties, an idea which was copied by the banks who sold on mortgage income. This ‘securitisation’ was partly responsible for the problems banks developed in the late Noughties.

3. Bowie says he was moonwalking years before Michael Jackson wowed the world in 1983's Billie Jean

He wrote on his official website that choreographer Toni Basil taught him a type of moonwalk for his 1974 Diamond Dogs tour.

4. Bowie was interviewed on a BBC programme as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men at the age of 17

He complained: "It's not nice when people call you darling and that".

5. Bowie shares his birthday with Elvis Presley

Elvis was exactly 12 years older. In her book, Stardust, Angie Bowie writes David Bowie could do a “devastating” impersonation of Elvis Presley . And Elvis once considered recording a cover version of Bowie’s 1976 hit, Golden Years.

6. Bowie's first ever release was Liza Jane/Louie Louie Go Home

He released the song in June 1964, under the name of Davie Jones with The King-Bees.

7. Born David Robert Jones in Brixton, London in 1947

He changed his name to avoid the similarity with Davy Jones from The Monkees. Due to the similar-sounding name, a popular misconception is that Bowie was actually in The Monkees.

8. Bowie got just one O Level - in art

He carried on drawing, painting and sculpting with his favourite artists listed as Picasso, Michael Ray Charles, Tintoretto and Erich Heckel.

9. Many young boys in the 1970s and 1980s grew up wanting to be Bowie – and so did girls

Queen of Shops Mary Portas said Bowie was her hero as a child and she dressed up as Ziggy Stardust aged 12.

10. Blue-eyed boy Bowie's left pupil was permanently dilated thanks to a punch thrown by friend George Underwood at school over a girl

His thumbnail dug into Bowie's eye, which appeared either brown or blue depending on the light.

11. The fictional Major Tom appeared in three of Bowie's hits: 'Space Oddity' in 1969, 'Ashes To Ashes' in 1980 and 'Hallo Spaceboy' in 1996

12. Bowie released his debut album, called 'David Bowie', in 1967 after playing in pub and club bands

13. The Laughing Gnome was the most requested track by fans when invited to make phone votes to select songs for him to perform on the 1990 world tour

He didn't play it the song and it's regarded by many as Bowie's worst song.

14. His first hit in the UK was 'Space Oddity' in 1969 and - aptly enough - was used by the BBC for the coverage of the moon landing

15. Nicolas Roeg cast Bowie in his first lead role in 1976, as a stranded alien, in The Man Who Fell to Earth

(Image: Getty Images)

16. His first number one in the United States was Fame, in 1975. Co-written by John Lennon, it features the late Beatle on backing vocals

17. On album 'Diamond Dogs', Bowie plays pretty much every instrument, including the guitar riff on 'Rebel Rebel'

(Image: Getty)

18. Bowie was ahead of the pack when the internet started to take off

In 1997 Bowie made single 'Telling Lies' available for release only on the internet. He launched Bowienet, his own ISP, a year later.

19. Bowie made a special guest appearance on SpongeBob SquarePants

He was cast as the Lord Royal Highness in Atlantis SquarePantis on November 12, 2007.

20. Bowie formed his own mime troupe in 1969 called Turquoise, later to change their name to Feathers

21. Bowie appeared as Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ

22. Bowie married supermodel Iman in 1992

In fact they married twice - at a registry office

23. Bowie's hit 'Ziggy Stardust' is about Vince Taylor, proto-punk and frontman for The Playboys

24. A version of 'Space Oddity' was recorded in Italian

Titled 'Ragazzo Solo, Ragazza Solo' which translated means 'Lonely Boy, Lonely Girl'.

25. Chart rivals Roxy Music were miffed when Bowie copied their catsuit look on stage

So they ‘stole’ his trusty lighting engineer.

26. Bowie's duet with Bing Crosby of 'The Little Drummer Boy', recorded for Christmas 1977 and a hit five years later, was Crosby's last ever single

(Image: Rex)

27. A letter that Bowie sent to Young American Sandra Adams in 1967, thanking her for sending his first fanmail from across the Atlantic, was unearthed in 2010

28. Bowie was hit by a lollipop onstage

It’s nothing new for bands to be pelted by missiles during gigs, but the projectile usually takes the form of a beer cup of water bottle. Not so during a gig by Bowie in Norway in 2004 when he was hit in the eye by a lollipop while onstage. The gig was stopped while Bowie received medical attention.

29. Actor and musician Scarlett Johansson said: " I learned I was a sexual being through David Bowie's songs .”

30. Lost Top of the Pops footage of The Jean Genie from 1973

Regarded as the 'holy grail' by Starman's fans, was found in a dusty box by a former cameraman on the show. It had been wiped by the BBC and assumed to be gone forever.

31. Bowie proposed to Iman in Paris while on a boat cruise on the Seine while it was passing under the Pont Neuf

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

32. His favourite aftershaves were Minotaure by Paloma Picasso and anything by Guerlain.

33. Bowie declined the CBE in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003

He said: "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."

34. He was the star of an episode in the second series of Extras

Where he made up a song ridiculing Gervais' character Andy Millman.

35. Bowie grew up in Bromley, London

But his family hail from Doncaster in South Yorkshire and Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

36. Rumour has it that Bing Crosby did not know who Bowie was before they recorded their Little Drummer Boy duet

It was Bing's son who recommended him.

37. 29-year-old Bowie was arrested for cannabis possession in Rochester, New York in 1976

38. Wife Iman has a Bowie knife tattooed on her ankle as well as the name 'David' in Arabic writing

(Image: Rex Features)

39. Other pseudonyms Bowie used over the years include Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, Tao Jones, Halloween Jack and John Merrick

40. A new spider species discovered in Malaysia in 2009 was called Heteropoda Davidbowie

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

41. Guitarist Mick Ronson's work with David Bowie is sometimes credited as being the 'birthpoint of heavy metal'

42. When recording the Magic Dance song for the Labyrinth soundtrack, the baby wouldn’t provide the necessary coos and giggles so David Bowie did it himself

43. His mum Peggy was a waitress and his dad John worked for Barnardo's

44. A pupil at Stockwell Infants School in south London, he had a reputation for 'defiance and brawling'

45. Bowie began playing the piano at the age of ten and played the ukelele and tea-chest bass in skiffle seesions with mates

46. The song 'Kooks' on 1971 album 'Hunky Dory' was written for his son Zowie

47. Now better known as Duncan Jones, he is an award-winning director responsible for science fiction-techno-thriller 2011 flick Source Code

48. 'Diamond Dogs' was planned to be a musical version of George Orwell's 1984

(Image: Photographs by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books)

49. In 1980, Bowie did a three-month run on Broadway in The Elephant Man

50. He turned down the chance to play baddie Max Zorin in James Bond film 'A View To A Kill' - a role that was performed by Christopher Walken

51. In 1992, he played FBI agent Phillip Jeffries in 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'

52. He and Iman appeared as characters in 1999 game Omikron - for which he provided the soundtrack

53. Bowie suffered an acutely blocked artery that required emergency heart surgery in 2004 and went into semi-retirement

54. Rolling Stone magazine declared him 39th on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time