David Bowie was never just the Thin White Duke or Ziggy Stardust to everyone. To one person, he was just "Dad." Specifically, the kind of dad who would get annoyed if you dyed your hair a weird color before a concert, despite having spent the better part of the seventies looking like an alien from Mars. That person is Duncan Jones.
If you grew up in the seventies or eighties, you probably knew him as Zowie Bowie. It was a name that rhymed, it was flashy, and it was, frankly, a lot for a kid to carry around. Today, Duncan is a world-class filmmaker responsible for sci-fi hits like Moon and Source Code. But the journey from being a "rock star's kid" to a self-made director wasn't exactly a straight line.
Growing Up Zowie: The Weirdness of the Early Years
Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones was born on May 30, 1971. His father was on the literal precipice of global superstardom. Just a few days after the birth, David Bowie recorded "Kooks" for the Hunky Dory album—a song essentially promising the kid that if the world got too weird, they’d just stay in and be "kooks" together.
The world did get weird.
His mother, Angie Bowie, was a firebrand. The marriage was famously open, chaotic, and fueled by the excesses of the era. Duncan has been pretty vocal about the fact that his early childhood was a bit of a "parallel universe." While his dad was busy reinventing music in Berlin or touring the world as Ziggy, Duncan was often under the wing of his Scottish nanny, Marion Skene.
Honestly, it wasn't all glitter and limousines. David Bowie later admitted that Duncan saw him through his "abject agony"—the peak of his drug and alcohol struggles in the mid-seventies. There were screaming matches and "absolute abject misery," as Bowie himself put it. When the parents divorced in 1980, David was granted sole custody. It was a rarity back then, but it changed everything for Duncan.
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The Great Name Change
Imagine being twelve years old and your name is Zowie Bowie. You're at Gordonstoun—a notoriously tough Scottish boarding school—and you just want to fit in. Duncan went by "Joey" for a long time. Eventually, he settled on Duncan Jones.
People often think he changed it to hide from his father’s shadow. Kinda, but not really. Jones is the family's actual surname. David Bowie was born David Robert Jones. By using Duncan Jones, he wasn't running away; he was just being himself. He wanted to see if he could actually make it in the film industry without people constantly asking him to sing "Space Oddity."
Why the "David Bowie and Son" Narrative is Often Wrong
The media loves a "reconciliation" story, but there wasn't really a huge falling out between David and Duncan. They were close. They were friends. But there was a gap.
Duncan has mentioned that until he found his own confidence, it was hard to relate to his father on an equal level. It’s hard to talk about "creative blocks" with a guy who wrote Heroes. But as Duncan moved into his thirties and started directing, the relationship shifted. David became a massive cheerleader for his son’s cinema career.
- The Labyrinth connection: Duncan basically grew up on movie sets. He spent time on the set of Labyrinth, watching the mechanics of filmmaking while his dad hung out with puppets.
- The Star Wars factor: Instead of teaching him scales on a guitar, David and Duncan would make stop-motion animations with Star Wars figurines.
- The reading list: Bowie didn't push music on him. He pushed books. George Orwell, Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard.
When Moon premiered at Sundance in 2009, David Bowie flew in unannounced. He sat in the dark and watched his son’s debut. Duncan later said it was "quite emotional" because his dad had been waiting for him to finally "get off my arse" and find his path.
What About the Rest of the Family?
It’s easy to focus solely on the father-son duo, but the family tree has other branches. Duncan has a half-sister, Alexandria "Lexi" Jones, born in 2000 to David and supermodel Iman.
Lexi has had to navigate the same "legend's child" pressure. Recently, in early 2025, she released her debut album Xandri. She even posted a poem on Instagram titled "David Bowie’s Daughter," where she talked about how people "see the blood" but "fail to see her." It seems both of Bowie’s children shared a very specific, quiet determination to be seen as individuals rather than just biological sequels to a rock god.
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The Artistic Correspondence
If you look at Duncan’s movies—especially Moon and Mute—you can see the "Bowie" DNA, but it's not a copy-paste job.
Moon is about a man (Sam Rockwell) isolated on a lunar base, dealing with clones and a fractured identity. Sound familiar? It’s very "Space Oddity" meets "The Man Who Fell to Earth," but with a much more grounded, philosophical heart. Duncan studied philosophy in college before switching to film, and it shows.
In 2018, Duncan released Mute on Netflix. He dedicated it to his father and his nanny, Marion. It’s a neon-soaked, futuristic Berlin—the very city where David found his sobriety and creative rebirth in the seventies. It felt like a visual letter home.
The Estrangement with Angie
One part of the story that isn't so "kooky" is Duncan’s relationship with his mother. He hasn't seen or spoken to Angie Bowie since he was 13. When she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and was told of David's death on camera, the world watched a very private grief become very public. Duncan, for his part, has kept a dignified distance. He simply doesn't have a relationship with her, and he's been clear that it's not something he dwells on.
Life After the Starman
When David Bowie passed away in January 2016, the world went into a collective mourning. Duncan was the one who confirmed the news with a simple, heartbreaking photo of him as a baby on his father’s shoulders.
Since then, he’s become a father himself. He has a son named Stenton and a daughter named... Zowie. Yep, he brought the name back. It’s a nice way of reclaiming a piece of his history that used to feel like baggage but now feels like a tribute.
Actionable Insights for Navigating a Famous Legacy:
If you're looking at how Duncan Jones handled being "the son of David Bowie," there are some genuine lessons in personal branding and mental health here.
- Define your own "surname": You don't have to use the stage name your parents built. Creating a separate professional identity (like Duncan Jones did) allows your work to be judged on its own merit.
- Find the "Quiet" influence: Duncan didn't try to be a rock star. He took the values his father taught him—bravery, trying things people don't expect—and applied them to a different medium.
- Set boundaries with the past: You aren't obligated to maintain toxic relationships just because they are "family." Duncan’s decision to remain estranged from his mother was a survival choice that allowed him to focus on his own stability.
- Embrace the "Kookiness" on your terms: Bringing back the name Zowie for his daughter shows that you can eventually make peace with the weird parts of your childhood once you've built your own house.
Duncan Jones isn't "the son of David Bowie" anymore in the eyes of the film world. He’s the director of Moon. He just happens to have a very famous dad.