David Bowie's 10 Best Screen Roles

Not only has the world lost an incredible icon in music, but now we'll never again get to see David Bowie's gorgeous face under the guise of an unexpected yet thrilling new screen role. It's a shame, but he's had some pretty incredible leading roles and cameos in his career; not least becoming the cause of every 80s teenager's sexual awakening in 'Labyrinth'.

David Bowie is a legend in entertainment, but here are his most unforgettable roles and appearances on both the big and small screen:

Jareth was every girl's fairytale heartthrob

1. Labyrinth (Jareth the Goblin King): This movie was probably re-watched yesterday (January 11th 2016) more times than it has ever been before. This 1986 BAFTA nominated Jim Henson epic saw him play a villainous Goblin King who kidnaps the baby brother of a fairytale obsessed girl under her inadvertent orders. She must tackle a mysterious and magical maze in order to reach her brother, while Jareth tries desperately to make her fall in love with him. And with his epic performance of 'Magic Dance', who wouldn't fall for him?!

2. Zoolander (himself): His cameo in this fashion comedy starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson was one of the most memorable cameos in movie history. Here he judges a walk-off between Derek Zoolander and Hansel, which doesn't end well for the former. Who knew Bowie knew so much about strutting?

Bowie and Lynch made for a surreal dream team

3. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Phillip Jeffries): Someone as surreal and innovative as David Bowie would clearly never go through his career without meeting a filmmaker of the same description. David Lynch released this precursor to the 'Twin Peaks' series after the show finished, with Bowie as a long-lost FBI agent apparently deeply disturbed by some unknown force.

4. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Thomas Jerome Newton): Released in 1976, this was one of Bowie's very first acting ventures. It's a rather surreal and depressing movie, about an alien who visits Earth in a bid to save his own planet only to meet a girl who falls for him, but it's maintained a cult following and largely feels like an inspiration for his future stage personas.

More: Best David Bowie collaborations

5. The Hunger (John Blaylock): Another non-human role, he plays the lover of a centuries-old vampire who bestows eternal youth on all she feeds upon. However, it only lasts as long as she's interested in them, and ends with a curse of mortality that causes them to rapidly age and die. Blaylock has just such luck, and needs the help of Susan Sarandon's character to stop his wife. The movie was popular enough to spawn an anthology TV horror series which Bowie narrated alongside Terrence Stamp.

Bowie eventually got to play hero Andy Warhol

6. Basquiat (Andy Warhol): As Bowie, naturally, is the Andy Warhol of music, this venture was not unusual. Especially considering his song of the same name on his 1971 'Hunky Dory' album. Getting to play his art hero in this Jean-Michel Basquiat biopic was not only a highlight for him, but for every Bowie fan in the world.

7. The Last Temptation of Christ (Pontius Pilate): It's not just independent movies he's found himself starring in either, he was also a part of Martin Scorsese's epic Academy Award winning blockbuster 'The Last Temptation of Christ' as Pontius Pilate; the fifth prefect of Judaea. Willem Dafoe played Jesus in the epic, and their exchange is one of the most poignant in the movie.

David Bowie as a POW was one of his most profound roles

8. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Major Jack Celliers): A particularly emotional drama for Bowie, and one that screams an unusual machismo at first glance. However, this British-Japanese POW film sees Bowie as a rather rebellious soldier and the unlikely homoerotic interest of POW camp leader Captain Yonoi. Sexy and sorrowful in equal measure, the film one a BAFTA and no wonder; that forbidden kiss scene was profound moment in cinema.

9. Extras (himself): Too many times have the guests on Ricky Gervais' hilarious sitcom had us crying with laughter, but Bowie's 'Chubby Little Fat Man' ditty for Gervais' character Andy Millman was seriously one of the most epic moments of the whole series. It's not clear whether he wrote the song, or Gervais wrote the song, or they wrote it together for the show, but it's a masterpiece nonetheless.

10. The Prestige (Nikola Tesla): This twice Oscar nominated mystery drama was directed by Christopher Nolan and co-starred Christian Bale. Another appropriate role for Bowie, he played the archetypal mad scientist of the modern world Nikola Tesla, an inventor of elegant style and eccentric lifestyle.