David Bowie

David Robert Jones (born January 8, 1947 in London, England), better known by his stage name David Bowie, is a English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, comedian, actor, and arranger who was well known for various image songs such as "Ashes to Ashes", "Diamond Dogs", "Space Oddity," and "Major Tom (Coming Home)." One of his most distinguishing traits, at least during his early years, was his possessing an androgynous physical appearance.

Relation to the Metal Gear series
In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the character Major Zero, during the Virtuous Mission, adopted the codename "Major Tom" for the mission, referencing the songs "Space Oddity" and "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by Bowie (although in-universe, it was a reference to one of the failed tunnels in The Great Escape). The boss character The Fury, shortly after being defeated by the main protagonist Naked Snake, radioed mission control while reliving his accident and stated that he was "coming home" before smashing himself through the roof, referencing the aforementioned song. When calling the character Para-Medic, she will ask Snake whether he's seen the film My Mother was a Teenage Spider Queen from Mars before admitting she hadn't absentmindedly, alluding to Bowie's former band "The Spiders from Mars." Both "Ashes to Ashes" and "Space Oddity" were originally planned to be used as the ending themes for Metal Gear Solid 3, although they were cut in favor of Starsailor.

In the Raymond Benson novelization for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Bowie was briefly referenced in one of the beginning chapters, specifically when Raiden was onboard the elevator upon infiltrating the Big Shell, where he reflected that Rosemary had once told him that his androgynous physical appearance gave him a physical resemblance to Bowie during the latter's youth.

In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, during the Steven Armstrong boss fight, Armstrong will occassionally say "Ashes to ashes, motherfucker!", referring to the song "Ashes to Ashes."

In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the name of the military group Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller were running after the devastation of the Militaires Sans Frontières, Diamond Dogs, was partly based on the name of another song by Bowie of the same name.