R.I.P. Terence Stamp, British actor behind Superman's General Zod

Best known as Superman's General Zod, Terence Stamp was 87.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  August 17, 2025 | 2:54pm
(Photo by J. Quinton/WireImage)
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R.I.P. Terence Stamp, British actor behind Superman's General Zod
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Terence Stamp has died. Known for bringing erudite stateliness and dignity to Superman’s General Zod, Stamp’s decades-long film career contains far more than comic book villainy. With his piercing stare and ridiculously well-defined cheekbones, Stamp brought a palpable intensity to the screen. Amid his time as London’s “It” boy of the Swinging Sixties, he worked with cinema’s most revered actors and directors. He also lived on an ashram, published memoirs, and wrote cookbooks for wheat-, dairy-, salt-, and sugar-free diets. Per Reuters, his family confirmed his death Sunday morning. He was 87.

“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,” the family said in a statement. “We ask for privacy at this sad time.”

Born in London’s East End in 1938, Stamp grew up poor during the Blitz, with his father, a tugboat stoker, heading to war. In between shifts as a barmaid, his mother raised Stamp and his four siblings through the London bombings. She also introduced him to acting by taking a 4-year-old Stamp to see Gary Cooper in Beau Geste. He immediately knew he wanted to be an actor. “Who better to mold your life on?” Stamp later said. After working in advertising for several years, Stamp won a scholarship to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where he became roommates with Michael Caine, Stamp’s one-time mentor. He made his screen debut in Peter Ustinov’s adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, which earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe. The role catapulted him to stardom, as did his dating life. Stamp became one of the era’s most photographed stars while dating Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton. He was even considered to succeed Sean Connery as James Bond. Unfortunately, his ideas “put the frighteners” on producers. “I didn’t get a second call.”

The ’60s saw Stamp reach remarkable creative heights, working opposite cinema’s most revered names, including Laurence Olivier and Ken Loach. In William Wyler’s The Collector, Stamp played his first unsettlingly calm villain, an archetype he’d return to with masterful variation throughout his career. He traveled to Italy to act for Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Still, he learned his greatest lessons working for directors “who don’t really like me and never really wanted me.”

“John Schlesinger, when I did Far From The Maddening Crowd, made it very clear that I wasn’t his first choice. I was foisted on him by the producer,” Stamp told BFI. “For the first time, I had to work without the cooperation of a director. I discovered a lot about myself. I discovered that, left to my own devices, I could pull something out of the bag.”

After his public breakup with Jean Shrimpton, Stamp moved to India to live in an ashram. He returned broke and landed the most popular role of his career, demanding Earthlings “kneel before Zod” as General Zod in Superman and Superman II. Working opposite one of his heroes, Marlon Brando, Stamp brought the ashram’s teachings to the set. “I’ll play this role as though I’m in the ashram,” he said. “I won’t worry about being evil or what I say or what I do. I’ll bring this kind of all-enveloping presence to it.” The result was a high-water mark for the genre.

Stamp built upon his Superman success with a diversity of roles. He starred as a transgender woman traveling the Australian outback with two drag queens in The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert. It was a groundbreaking role. “My characterization was based on how it would feel to be born into the wrong body,” he told The A.V. Club in 2013. “My feeling was, this was always a woman, she’d always only been a woman. But the truth is, the more I became familiar with the movie, I realized that it kind of is a masterpiece, really. It’s so silly that people don’t take it seriously, and it’s kind of a perfect movie. Flawless.”

Five years later, he played Steven Soderbergh’s seething career criminal on the hunt in The Limey. In addition to Limey, he was a fixture of the 1999 box office, appearing in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace and Bowfinger. During this time, he met his first and only wife, Elizabeth O’Rourke, who was 33 years his junior. The couple published two cookbooks, based on his various dietary allergies, and divorced in 2008.

Stamp continued working throughout the 2000s. He returned to Kypton, playing Jor-El on Smallville, and appeared in Tim Burton’s Big Eyes. His career remained varied, starring in the 2019 Adam Sandler comedy, Murder Mystery, and HBO’s His Dark Materials. Appropriately, he returned to Mod London for 2021’s Last Night In Soho, playing the type of brooding baddie that made him a star.

 
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