Sting
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- October 2, 1951
- Place of birth
- Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK
Biography
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 2 October 1951), known as Sting, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, activist, and actor. He was the frontman, principal songwriter and bassist for new wave band the Police from 1977 until their breakup in 1986. He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.
Sting has sold a combined total of more than 100 million records as a solo artist and as a member of the Police. He has received three Brit Awards, including Best British Male Artist in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2002; a Golden Globe; an Emmy; and four Academy Award nominations. As a solo musician and as a member of the Police, Sting has received 17 Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police in 2003. Sting has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors; a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II for services to music; Kennedy Center Honors; and the Polar Music Prize. In May 2023, he was made an Ivor Novello Fellow.
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born at Sir G B Hunter Memorial Hospital in Wallsend, Northumberland, England, on 2 October 1951, the eldest of four children of Audrey (née Cowell), a hairdresser, and Ernest Matthew Sumner, a milkman and former fitter at an engineering works. He grew up near Wallsend's shipyards, which made an impression on him. As a child, he was inspired by the Queen Mother waving at him from a Rolls-Royce to divert from the shipyard prospect towards a more glamorous life. He helped his father deliver milk and by ten was "obsessed" with an old Spanish guitar left by an emigrating friend of his father.
Sting attended St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. He visited nightclubs such as Club A'Gogo to see Cream and Manfred Mann, who influenced his music. He learned to sing and play simultaneously by listening to records at 78 rpm. After leaving school in 1969, he enrolled at the University of Warwick in Coventry, but left after a term. After working as a bus conductor, building labourer, and tax officer, he attended the Northern Counties College of Education (now Northumbria University) from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher.[20] He taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years.
Sting performed jazz in the evenings, at weekends, and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit. He gained his nickname after his habit of wearing a black and yellow jumper with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought he looked like a bee (or according to Sting himself, "they thought I looked like a wasp"), which prompted the name "Sting". In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night a journalist called him Gordon, to which he replied, "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?" In 2011, he told Time "I was never called Gordon. You could shout 'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way". Despite this, he chose not to legally change his name to "Sting". ...
Source: Article "Sting (musician)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Movies with Sting
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 · ★ 8.1
- Bee Movie 2007 · ★ 6.1
- Dune 1984 · ★ 6.2
- Zoolander 2 2016 · ★ 4.9
- Brüno 2009 · ★ 5.6
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 1988 · ★ 7.0
- Kaamelott: The First Chapter 2021 · ★ 6.6
- The Book of Solutions 2023 · ★ 5.9
- Quadrophenia 1979 · ★ 7.0
- The Mighty 1998 · ★ 7.2
- 20 Feet from Stardom 2013 · ★ 7.2
- Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics 2020 · ★ 6.6
- WHAM! 2023 · ★ 7.3
- The Bride 1985 · ★ 5.4
- Stormy Monday 1988 · ★ 5.7
- The Filth and the Fury 2000 · ★ 6.9
- Live Aid 1985 · ★ 7.8
- Plenty 1985 · ★ 5.7
- The Police: Certifiable 2008 · ★ 7.6
- Scott Walker: 30 Century Man 2007 · ★ 7.2
- Brimstone & Treacle 1982 · ★ 5.9
- GIMS: On the Record 2020 · ★ 7.3
- The Sweatbox 2002 · ★ 7.0
- Jaco 2015 · ★ 7.5
- Untold UK: Vinnie Jones 2026 · ★ 6.5
- Radio On 1979 · ★ 5.9
- Live 8 2005 · ★ 7.4
- Julia and Julia 1988 · ★ 5.1
- Urgh! A Music War 1981 · ★ 7.5
- Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who 2007 · ★ 7.1
- Saturday Night Live: The Best of Phil Hartman 1998 · ★ 7.7
- The 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts 2009 · ★ 7.9
- Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police 2012 · ★ 6.4
- Chris Botti & Friends - Night Sessions: Live in Concert 2002 · ★ 7.1
- Mylène Farmer: 2019 - Le Film 2019 · ★ 8.6
- The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice! 2010 · ★ 6.9
- Sting: Inside - The Songs of Sacred Love 2003 · ★ 7.6
- The Grotesque 1995 · ★ 5.4
- Sting ...All This Time 2001 · ★ 7.4
- Under the Volcano 2021 · ★ 6.9
Movies directed by Sting
- The Police - Greatest Video Hits 2007 · ★ 7.0