Hollywood Bids Farewell to a Screen Legend
The film world is bidding a sad farewell to one of the most iconic and powerful actors.
Terence Stamp, the amazingly versatile British actor who gave the world his “Kneel before Zod!” command as the unforgettable General Zod in 1978’s Superman and its 1980 sequel, was announced by his family in a statement to Reuters on August 17, that he was 87 years old.
In a heartfelt tribute, his family spoke of his influence forever, stating, “What an exceptional talented performer and writer he was. He leaves behind a rich legacy of work that will continue to move and inspire people for a long time.” They ended the message with a very modest request for their privacy during this difficult moment.
An Unlikely Path to Stardom
Terence Stamp’s progression from his home to the big screen was pure Hollywood-movie style, but he had started his career pretty far from the dazzling world of show business. As the son of a tugboat stoker in London’s working-class East End, it was more likely that he would have taken up the trade rather than acting. Actually, the spark of the acting was only lit in his late teens, when his family bought their first television.
The first thing I did was pretending to be someone else, I remember saying in a 2013 interview: “I started saying things like, ‘Oh, I could do that,’”. It did not take long for his father to confront him with his disbelief. He said “He’s just trying to save me a lot of aggro” and “people like us didn’t do things like that” were his feelings.
However, Stamp’s latent genius couldn’t stay hidden for long. After he was given a scholarship to the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, he went on to light up the scene with his 1962 film debut, Billy Bud. Almost immediately, his performance got him nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe for Most Promising Male Newcomer. He was a member of a new sea of talent, making friends and finding followers in the likes of Michael Caine and Peter O’Toole, fellow stars on the rise.
To Stamp, it went to him like a dream, a dream that very soon was impossible to distinguish from reality. “It was as though it was absolutely second nature to me,” said he to NPR in 2021. “Everything I saw that was new, I understood almost root instantly.”
From Supervillain to Desert Queen: A Legacy of Versatility
Terence Stamp, in the beginning, was not only recognizable but also notably famous for his characters that were mostly villains and were in some way horrifying. It was from 1965’s The Collector that he started to create such a reputation, being very consistent in this type of roles up to the point when he was going to co-star with his then-girlfriend Julie Christie in Far From the Madding Crowd. However, the case is that his role in 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is the one that brilliantly displays his whole range and fearlessness as an actor by essentially breaking all the limitations. The performance which stood out from the rest as he transformed into a transgender woman was the reason he got nominated for both Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Actor.
Stamp saw the part as beyond just a job, as he was telling People at the moment, ”Cross-dressing has been there since Shakespeare’s time and all that. It would be nice if the next big thing in society was that androgyny was more prevalent. It would make relationships easier.” And using his famous sarcasm, he also joked about how Hollywood would be responding: ”I am very sure that Hollywood will come up with the lines, ‘He was always a great villain, we just didn’t know he had great legs.””
That was not the end of his story. He had a long-standing and very vibrant career. For many years, he was seen on a big or small screen performing various diverse characters. Firstly, he added a very serious note to the Star Wars saga, Episode I – The Phantom Menace, then he revealed his humor side in Get Smart. After that, he was part of the successful Murder Mystery, co-starring with Adam Sandler, and recently, he was last but not least in a very captivating way in the stylish thriller Last Night in Soho.
