From the Theater to the Soundstage
Bowie’s acting career predated his breakthrough as a musician. He had studied avant-garde theater and mime, taking the role of Cloud in Kemp’s 1967 theatrical production of Pierrot in Turquoise. In 1976, Bowie earned praise for his first major film role as the alien Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth.
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He later admitted that his cocaine use during the filming left him in a very fragile state of mind, so much so that he barely understood the movie. Then there was Just a Gigolo in 1979, in which Bowie played the lead role as a Prussian officer named Paul von Przygodski. The movie bombed, and Bowie later expressed his embarrassment over his role in it.