Alexander Fleming vs David Bowie
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Fleming | David Bowie | |
| Field | Music | Film |
| Sub-field | Musician | Actor |
| Born | 1881 | 1947 |
| Died | 1955 | 2016 |
| Country of birth | SCT | United Kingdom |
| Star sign | Leo | Capricorn |
Who they are
Alexander Fleming
In September 1928, a Scottish bacteriologist returned from his summer holiday to a cluttered laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London, and noticed something unusual on a petri dish he had left behind. A mould had contaminated one of his cultures of Staphylococcus bacteria — and around the mould, the bacteria were dead. Alexander Fleming did not immediately grasp that he had just made the most important medical discovery of the twentieth century. But he was curious enough to look more carefully, and careful enough not to throw the dish away. That decision would eventually…
Full biography of Alexander Fleming →
David Bowie
On June 6, 1972, a twenty-four-year-old Brixton-born musician named David Robert Jones — performing under the name David Bowie, inhabiting a character he had named Ziggy Stardust — appeared on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops to perform "Starman," draped his arm around his guitarist Mick Ronson's shoulders in a gesture that was, for British television in 1972, practically avant-garde, and stared directly into the camera. The performance reached approximately fifteen million viewers. Within a week, the Ziggy Stardust album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was…
Full biography of David Bowie →
What they share
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Different fields: Music for Alexander Fleming, Film for David Bowie.
- Born in different countries: SCT and United Kingdom.
- 66 years separate their births (1881 and 1947).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Fleming or David Bowie?
- Alexander Fleming. Alexander Fleming was born in 1881, David Bowie in 1947.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Fleming is filed under Music (Musician). David Bowie is filed under Film (Actor).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.