Terence Stamp, one of the stellar faces of British 60s cinema, who had a second act from the late 1970s as a character actor in the likes of Superman: The Movie, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Limey, has died aged 87.
His family said in a statement that he died on Sunday morning. “He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer, that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” they said. “We ask for privacy at this sad time.”
Stephen Frears, who directed Stamp in the 1984 thriller The Hit told the Guardian: “He was a fine man and a fine actor. It was an honour to have directed him.”
Guy Pearce, who co-starred with him in Priscilla, described him on social media as “a true inspiration, both in & out of heels”, while the film’s director Stephan Elliott told the Guardian he was “a wonderful man”.
In a lengthy post, director Edgar Wright, who cast him in Last Night in Soho, said he was “a true movie star: the camera loved him, and he loved it right back”.
Ken Loach, who directed Stamp in the 1967 feature Poor Cow, told the Guardian: “Terry was very pleasant and seemed to enjoy being a working class London lad. It meant he didn’t have to pretend to be what he wasn’t, and he relaxed into the role. He had an easy warmth, which again seemed unforced and the relationship between him and [co-star] Carol [White] worked well. They relaxed in each other’s company and I hope all that shows in the film.
“We stayed in touch for a little while after the film, but he was much in demand and was soon way out of our league. However, whenever we spoke of each other, it was always with happy memories. He certainly didn’t play the big star, just became one of the gang.”
Stamp became one of British cinema’s glamour figures in its most fashionable decade, scoring early high-profile roles in Billy Budd and The Collector for the directors Peter Ustinov and William Wyler respectively.
His relationship with the model Jean Shrimpton in the mid-60s ensured both were key faces of the decade. Stamp became one of its most photographed people and a significant part of the new wave of working-class actors and musicians that fuelled Britain’s pre-eminent position in the entertainment industry.
Born in Stepney in east London, Stamp grew up the son of tugboat sailor in the slightly less tough area of Plaistow, and won a scholarship to drama school. His brother Chris also became a high-profile figure as manager of music acts including The Who and Jimi Hendrix.
After meeting during a tour of The Long and the Short and the Tall, Stamp shared a flat with his fellow up-and-coming actor Michael Caine, whom Stamp later described as his guru.
His first major screen role was in 1962 in Billy Budd, for which he received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. This brought him to the attention of Hollywood and he was given the lead role in Wyler’s 1965 adaptation of John Fowles’s thriller novel The Collector.
Stamp’s subsequent acting career in the 1960s was erratic. He lost out to Sean Connery for James Bond and was replaced in the lead role of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up by David Hemmings. However, he starred opposite Antonioni’s favoured star Monica Vitti in Modesty Blaise, directed by Joseph Losey, appeared in Ken Loach’s hard-hitting debut Poor Cow, and starred opposite his former girlfriend Julie Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd, adapted from Thomas Hardy’s novel.
In 1968, Stamp appeared in two films for Italian auteurs. Federico Fellini cast him in his section of the three-part omnibus film Spirits of the Dead adapted from Edgar Allan Poe, while Pier Paolo Pasolini gave him the lead role in his allegorical masterpiece Theorem. Stamp later said: “Pasolini told me: ‘A stranger arrives, makes love to everybody, and leaves. This is your part.’ I said: ‘I can do that!’”
Stamp’s profile declined sharply at the end of the decade and work dried up. “It was a mystery to me. I was in my prime. When the 1960s ended, I just ended with it,” he said. “I remember my agent telling me: ‘They are all looking for a young Terence Stamp’ … I couldn’t believe it.”
He went to India and stayed on an ashram and was eventually recalled by the film industry with an offer to play the villainous General Zod in Superman: The Movie and Superman II, which were filmed back to back.
Stamp later said he had to come to terms with no longer being the lead actor. “I had transmuted myself. I no longer saw myself as a leading man,” he said. “What had happened inside of me enabled me to take the role, and not feel embarrassed or depressed about playing the villain. I just decided I was a character actor now.”
Stamp returned to British cinema in the 1980s, starring opposite John Hurt and Tim Roth in Frears’ The Hit, and had a cameo as the devil in Neil Jordan’s literary horror film The Company of Wolves. He subsequently alternated safe-bet Hollywood roles with more adventurous work. In 1994 he played the trans cabaret performer Bernadette Bassenger in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, for which he received Bafta and Golden Globe nominations, followed by a lead role in Steven Soderbergh’s revenge thriller The Limey.
The subsequent decades saw more high-profile castings as interest grew in his earlier work, including roles in Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Wanted and The Adjustment Bureau, while another juicy British cinema role came his way opposite Vanessa Redgrave in Song for Marion. More recently he appeared in Big Eyes and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children for Tim Burton, and his most recently released film credit was Last Night in Soho, the retro-inspired horror thriller directed by Edgar Wright.
Despite a string of high-profile relationships, including with Christie and Shrimpton, Stamp married only once, in 2002, to Elizabeth O’Rourke. They divorced in 2008.
