Jennifer Connelly is the latest in a long line of celebrity A-listers who are looking back on musical legend David Bowie.
In one of her earliest roles, the Shelter actress, 45, costarred with Bowie in the 1986 cult classic Labyrinth, a fairy-tale fantasy about a 16-year-old girl, Sarah (Connelly), tasked with rescuing her baby brother from the big bad Goblin King (Bowie) by solving a labyrinth in under 13 hours.
“I think it’s very sad, his passing, for so many reasons,” Connelly told Entertainment Tonight at the Sixth Biennial UNICEF Ball in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, January 12. “To me, not only was he a genius, he was a genius who had the time to be kind. [That] was my experience of him. So my thoughts are with his family.”
Connelly was just 14 years old when she starred in the film, which was one of her first movie roles.
“I met David Bowie when I was 14, and he became a hero to me … I’d never met such an extraordinary artist before, and I haven’t since — the world will be a grayer place without him,” she said in a statement. (In addition to his 27 studio albums, Bowie also acted in many films over the years, including August, Zoolander, and The Prestige.)
Bowie died on Sunday, January 10, at the age of 69, after an 18-month battle with liver cancer.
Celebrities have showed an outpouring of love and remembrance for the icon in the days since.
On Tuesday, fellow chameleon Madonna honored the singer by rocking out in front of two blown-up photos of the icon while performing his classic “Rebel Rebel” as part of her Rebel Heart tour.
One day before his death, his wife, supermodel Iman, posted a telling message on Instagram.
“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory,” she shared. “Rise #imandaily.” Bowie and Iman, 60, shared daughter Alexandria, 15.
