Rock icon David Bowie has died just two days after his 69th birthday following a struggle with cancer, according to his son and his official Facebook page.

"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," the Facebook statement read.

"While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief."

His son Duncan Jones tweeted: "Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all."

Born David Jones in London on January 8 1947, Bowie released 26 studio albums across his almost 50-year career, including a string of 10 LPs in the 1970s that are among the most influential albums of all time.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1996.

Albums including Heroes, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Hunky Dory, Diamond Dogs, Let's Dance and Low established him as one of music's most innovative performers.

His first hit, 1969's Space Oddity, told the story of an astronaut, Major Tom, and was released in time to coincide with the Apollo 11 launch.

He followed that up with a string of albums that defined the ostentatious, androgynous glam rock sound of the early 1970s.

The persona of Ziggy Stardust — a doomed bisexual alien rock star wearing outrageous costumes and with a shock of bright red hair — catapulted him to huge fame.

After killing Ziggy Stardust off during a final show in London in 1973, he moved to New York and later to West Berlin, developing a new persona, the Thin White Duke, and collaborating with US singers Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.

David Bowie and wife Iman attend a fashion awards ceremony in 2010. ( Reuters: Lucas Jackson )

Entering the '80s his music became increasingly influenced by soul, disco and funk, while his film career saw him appear in pictures including Labyrinth (1986) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).

He also appeared on the Broadway stage, playing Elephant Man John Merrick for five months from 1980 to early 1981.

Bowie's androgynous image made him a trailblazer at a time when homosexuality was still a taboo subject for many. Married to his first wife, Angie, in 1970, he later declared himself to be bisexual, and was pictured reclining in a dress on the cover of 1971's Hunky Dory.

He married his second wife Iman, a Somali-American model, in 1992.

He also battled drugs at times during his career, with an addiction to heroin and cocaine during the 1970s, and made statements expressing support for far-right politics during the Thin White Duke years — comments which he later attributed to his struggle with drugs and the fact that he was "completely crazed" at the time.

"I blew my nose one day in California," he once said. "And half my brains came out. Something had to be done."

An earlier performance by Bowie in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 1996. ( Getty: Rob Verhorst/Redferns )

He sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide.

Bowie kept a low profile after undergoing emergency heart surgery in 2004 but marked his 69th birthday on Friday with the release of a new album, Blackstar.

The album features only seven songs, but Britain's Guardian newspaper called it a "spellbinding break" with Bowie's past.

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The singer, songwriter, actor and artist had returned to the music scene after 2013's chart-topping The Next Day, itself released after a 10-year gap and described by one critic as "the greatest comeback in rock 'n' roll history".

"It didn't occur to me that rock and roll ever had a life that long, you know?" he reflected.

"Nobody at that particular time really thought it would become something ... myself and my contemporaries at my age ... I guess it's new ground to us.

"We're just learning what to do with it ... at this age and still playing rock and roll."

British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted his condolences: "I grew up listening to and watching the pop genius David Bowie. He was a master of re-invention, who kept getting it right. A huge loss."