RIP Ziggy Stardust: Remembering David Bowie, the maverick music legend

[caption id="attachment_2579996" align="alignnone" width="940"] Music legend David Bowie performing at the Glastonbury Festival in 2000. The visionary British rock star, who framed hits such as Space Oddity with flamboyant pop personas like 'Ziggy Stardust' and androgynous displays of sexuality,passed away on Monday aged 69 after a secret battle with cancer. Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2579998" align="alignnone" width="940"] Princes Diana, Patron of the National AIDS Trust, greets David Bowie before the Concert of Hope to mark World AIDS Day. Bowie's 1972 portrayal of a doomed bisexual rock envoy from space, Ziggy Stardust, that propelled him to global stardom. Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580000" align="alignnone" width="940"] David Bowie jokingly makes devils horns as he delivers the commencement address at the 1999 graduation ceremonies of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. A pioneering chameleon of performance imagery, Bowie straddled the worlds of hedonistic rock, fashion, art and drama for five decades, pushing the boundaries of music and his own sanity to produce some of the most innovative songs of his generation. Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580004" align="alignnone" width="940"] British singer David Bowie performs during the first concert of his UK tour in Manchester in 2003. Bowie defined the theatrical glam rock movement with the albums "Hunky Dory", "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", and "Aladdin Sane". Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580006" align="alignnone" width="940"] Singer David Bowie arrives with his wife Iman to attend the an award ceremony in 2010. Ever ahead of public opinion, Bowie told the Melody Maker newspaper in 1972 that he was gay, four years later, he informed Playboy that he was bisexual, but in the 1980s he told Rolling Stone magazine that the declaration was "the biggest mistake I ever made" and that he was "always a closet heterosexual". Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580008" align="alignnone" width="940"] A woman with a Ziggy Stardust tattoo visits a mural of David Bowie in Brixton, London after news of the music legend's demise broke on Monday. Thousands mourned his passing all over the world. Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580010" align="alignnone" width="940"] A man holds a 10 Brixton Pounds note, which is adorned with an image of Brixton native David Bowie. The Brixton Pound is an alternative currency which can be used in businesses in the south London neighbourhood. Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580012" align="alignnone" width="940"] A painting by David Bowie is seen in an exhibition in Berlin. David Bowie's intensely productive Berlin period - when he made the iconic albums "Heroes" and "Low", launched Iggy Pop's solo career and kicked a drug habit - is the theme of a new show. Reuters[/caption][caption id="attachment_2580014" align="alignnone" width="940"] A variety of stage costumes worn by musician David Bowie are seen at the "David Bowie is" Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Bowie's music and outrageous costumes, makeup and bright orange hair had taken the pop world by storm. Reuters[/caption]