Terence Stamp, an Actor Who Specialized in Villains, Dies at 87

Terence Stamp, the British actor who often played complex bad guys, including General Zod in the early Superman films, has died. He was 87.

His death on Sunday was disclosed in a death notice published online, prompting a wave of tributes from and an array of fans and those close to him within the industry, including the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, better known as Bafta.

Bill Duke, who starred with Stamp in director Steven Soderbergh’s 1999 crime drama The Limey, said he was “deeply saddened” to hear of his death.

“He brought a rare intensity to the screen, but off-screen he carried himself with warmth, grace, and generosity,” he said on Facebook.

The London-born Stamp started his film career with 1962’s seafaring Billy Budd, for which he earned nominations for Oscar and Bafta awards.

Stamp’s six decades in the business were peppered with highlights, including his touching portrayal of the transsexual Bernadette in 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the second of his two Bafta nominations. In 2021, AARP named it one of the 20 funniest movies of the last 50 years.  

But it will be his portrayal of the bearded Zod in 1978’s Superman and its sequel Superman II two years later that most people associate with Stamp. As the Kryptonian arch enemy to Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel, Stamp introduced a darker, charming and vulnerable — more human — element to the franchise, one that’s been replicated in countless superhero movies ever since.

Stamp started his acting career on stage in the late 1950s, where he acted in repertory theatre and met Michael Caine, who was five years older than himself. The pair lived together in a flat in central London while looking for their big break.

He got his break with Billy Budd, and Stamp embarked on a career that would see him in the early 1960s be part of the “angry young men” movement that was introducing an element of social realism into British moviemaking.

That was perhaps most notable in the 1965 adaptation of John Fowles’ creepy debut novel The Collector, where he played the awkward and lonely Freddie Clegg, who kidnapped Samantha Eggar’s Miranda Grey in a warped attempt to win her love. It was a performance that would earn the young Stamp, fresh off his Oscar nomination, the best actor award at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

While part of that 1960s British movement, Stamp learned from some of the most seasoned actors from the classical era, including Laurence Olivier.