“David Bowie used to live over here,” Gabriel Byrne says. “Now the lights are never on in his apartment.” We’re in Manhattan, talking about life and a person’s legacy and how you balance the pursuit of happiness with the business of making your mark on the world. I think it’s possible that Iman, Bowie’s widow, has moved out but I don’t want to spoil this metaphor of the darkened penthouse.
Byrne, 69, has had a long career as an actor. He was in a Dublin theatre troupe with Stephen Rea and Liam Neeson, went to London and worked with Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier, then was a Hollywood star in films including Miller’s Crossing and The Usual Suspects. More recently, he played a therapist
