Sting

Sting was born Gordon Matthew Sumner on 2 October, 1951 in Wallsend, North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, the eldest of four children of Audrey (Cowell), a hairdresser, and Ernest Matthew Sumner, an engineer and milkman. He received his name from a striped sweater he wore which looked like a bee. He grew up in the turmoil of the ship-building industry and wanted to become a musician very early. He played cruise ships, backing strippers in cabarets, and developed a love for the bass guitar. Having played in jazz/rock bands like "Last Exit" and other various groups, including a dixieland jazz group, he settled down with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers for a decade-long tenure with the smashing rock trio, The Police.

The Police were voted the 70th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artists of all time by Rolling Stone.

He is a big fan of "Richard Laymer, the Copy Guy," a popular character created by Rob Schneider for Saturday Night Live (1975). Sting was the first SNL host/musical guest to appear in a "Copy Guy" sketch; he later wrote the cast and crew a letter from "Sting. The Stingster. Der Stinglehoffer. Sting-a-ling-a-ding-dong. Sting-o. The Stingman.".

His children are Joseph Sumner (b. 23 November 1976) and Fuschia Sumner (b. 17 April 1982) by Frances Tomelty; Mickey Sumner (b. 19 January 1984), Jake Sumner (b. 24 May 1985), Eliot Sumner (b. 30 July 1990) and Giacomo Sumner (b. 17 December 1995) by Trudie Styler.

He has also delved into acting, having starred in such films as Quadrophenia (1979), Radio On (1979), Plenty (1985), Julia and Julia (1987) (aka Julia and Julia), Dune (1984), Bring on the Night (1985) (a documentary about the formation of his Blue Turtles jazz group), most recently, Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets (1995), where he plays a bisexual, conniving butler.

Sting appeared in Threepenny Opera in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s.

His album with The Police, "Synchronicity", was the album that finally knocked Michael Jackson's "Thriller", the best selling album of all time, out of the number one spot it held for most of 1983.

In 1984, he went on to record solo albums, and holds a reputation as one of the most literate songwriters and talented musicians in the world.

He filmed his son Jake Sumner's birth and put it in his movie, Bring on the Night (1985).

His 1987 album "Nothing Like the Sun" is dedicated to his mother, Audrey.

Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, founded the Rainforest Foundation in 1988.

He received an honorary Doctorate of Music degree from Northumbria University in October 1992, and from Berklee College of Music in May 1994. He plays guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, piano, harmonica, saxophone and pan-flute, and he gave a name to his bass (Brian). Sting is married to film producer Trudie Styler, and has six children with Trudie and ex-wife, actress Frances Tomelty. Sting owns a Jacobian castle in Wiltshire, which he calls "Lake House", where he records his albums, as well as a place in London, an apartment in New York, a place on the beach in Malibu, California, and a Renaissance Florentine Villa called "Palagio" in Figline Valdarno, Tuscany, Italy.

Two of the songs he sang with The Police are also the titles of films starring Sandra Bullock: Demolition Man (1993) and Murder by Numbers (2002).

He was the winner of the 2002 Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of The Police) on 10 March 2003.

The comic book character of "John Constantine" ("Hellblazer"), eventually featured in the Keanu Reeves movie, Constantine (2005), was designed to look like Sting, and, in fact, was created solely for the purpose of including a character who looks like Sting in the Swamp Thing comic. In one Swamp Thing issue, there's a boat called the "USS Gordon Sumner".

He reunited with his former band-mates and performed at the 2007 Grammy Awards. The next day, The Police announced a worldwide tour in 2007, the first tour since 1986.

The 2009 Sunday Times List estimated his net worth at $295 million.

He has six children, two from his first wife Frances Tomelty, and four from Trudie Styler. As of 2019, Sting has seven grandchildren.