Jennifer Connelly is grateful for the "extraordinary memories" she has of the late David Bowie.

Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly

The 43-year-old actress was just a teenager when she starred alongside the music icon - who passed away on Sunday (10.01.16) following a secret 18-month battle with cancer - in the cult 1986 movie 'Labyrinth'.

Her breakthrough role as Sarah Williams saw her hunt down Bowie's most famous screen character, the Goblin King Jareth, and the brunette beauty revealed he was nothing short of "genius."

Speaking to 'Entertainment Tonight', the star shared: "I have a lot of extraordinary memories with him. I think it's very sad, his passing, for so many reasons. 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."

It was the 30th anniversary of the release of the fantasy film in November and Jennifer said of David at the time: "He was just very very nice, very warm, very lovely, sweet guy who would crack jokes with the cast and crew."

Jennifer remained silent on the day the shock news broke that Bowie had passed away while many other collaborators and fans paid tribute, including Madonna, Iggy Pop, Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger, Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney and astronaut Tim Peake - who paid tribute from the International Space Station.