By PAN PYLAS
LONDON (AP) — Terence Stamp, the British actor who typically performed the position of a posh villain, together with that of Common Zod within the early Superman movies, has died. He was 87.
His dying on Sunday was disclosed in a dying discover revealed on-line, prompting a wave of tributes from and an array of followers and people near him throughout the trade, together with the British Academy of Movie and Tv Arts, or BAFTA.
The London-born Stamp began his movie profession with 1962’s seafaring “Billy Budd,” for which he earned Oscar and BAFTA award nominations.
His six a long time within the enterprise have been peppered with highlights, together with his touching portrayal of the transsexual Bernadette in 1994’s “The Adventure of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” the second of his two BAFTA nominations.
However it is going to be his portrayal of the bearded Zod in 1978’s “Superman” and its sequel “Superman II” two years later that most individuals affiliate with Stamp. Because the Kryptonian arch enemy to Christopher Reeve’s Man of Metal, Stamp launched a darker, charming and susceptible — extra human — component to the franchise, one which’s been replicated in numerous superhero motion pictures ever since.
Edgar Wright, who directed Stamp in his ultimate characteristic movie, 2021’s “Last Night in Soho,” remembered the actor in an Instagram put up as “kind, funny, and endlessly fascinating.”
“The closer the camera moved, the more hypnotic his presence became. In close-up, his unblinking gaze locked in so powerfully that the effect was extraordinary. Terence was a true movie star: the camera loved him, and he loved it right back,” Wright mentioned.
Invoice Duke, who starred with Stamp in director Steven Soderbergh’s 1999 crime drama “The Limey,” mentioned he was “deeply saddened” to listen to of his dying.
“He brought a rare intensity to the screen, but off-screen he carried himself with warmth, grace, and generosity,” he mentioned on Fb.
Stamp began his appearing profession on stage within the late Fifties, the place he acted in repertory theatre and met Michael Caine, who was 5 years older than himself. The pair lived collectively in a flat in central London whereas searching for their massive break.
He received his break with “Billy Budd” and Stamp launched into a profession that may see him within the early Nineteen Sixties be a part of the “angry young men” motion that was introducing a component of social realism into British moviemaking.
That was maybe most notable within the 1965 adaptation of John Fowles’ creepy debut novel “The Collector,” the place he performed the awkward and lonely Freddie Clegg, who kidnapped Samantha Eggar’s Miranda Gray in a warped try and win her love. It was a efficiency that may earn the younger Stamp, recent off his Oscar nomination, the perfect actor award at that 12 months’s Cannes Movie Pageant.
Whereas a part of that Nineteen Sixties British motion, Stamp realized from a few of the most seasoned actors from the classical period, together with Laurence Olivier.
“I worked with Olivier briefly on my second movie (1962’s “Term of Trial”),” Stamp recalled in an interview with the AP in 2013. “And he said to me, ‘You should always study your voice.’” Stamp then segued right into a spot-on Olivier impersonation, persevering with, “‘Because, as you get older, your looks go, but your voice will become empowered.’”
His profession took a little bit of a hiatus from the late Nineteen Sixties after he missed out on the position of James Bond to exchange Sean Connery, that included a years-long stint in India and which noticed him embrace a extra holistic strategy to his self.
It was the surprising position of Common Zod that introduced him again to the limelight. He performed John Tunstall in 1988’s “Young Guns,” the Galactic Republic chief in 1999’s “Star Wars” prequel “The Phantom Menace,” appeared within the comedies “Yes Man” and “Get Smart” in 2008 and delivered voice performances within the video video games “Halo 3” and “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.”
Born in London’s East Finish on July 22, 1938, Stamp lived a colourful life, notably in the course of the Nineteen Sixties when he had a string of romances, together with with actress Julie Christie and mannequin Jean Shrimpton. He married 29-year-old Elizabeth O’Rourke in 2002 on the age of 64 however the couple divorced six years later. Stamp didn’t have any youngsters.
Stamp retained his appears to be like because the years ticked by, his pure handsomeness hardened by a extra grizzled look.
He typically sought to maintain his requirements excessive — to a degree.
“I don’t do crappy movies, unless I haven’t got the rent,” he mentioned.
Initially Printed: August 17, 2025 at 9:56 AM PDT
