Terence Henry Stamp (22 July 1938 – 17 August 2025) was an English actor.

Known for his sophisticated villain roles, he received various accolades including a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and a Silver Bear as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards.

He was named by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995.

After training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Stamp started his acting career in 1960 in the Wolf Mankowitz production of This Year Next Year at the West End's Vaudeville Theatre. He was called the "master of the brooding silence" by The Guardian. His performance in the title role of Billy Budd, his film debut, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer. Associated with the Swinging London scene of the 1960s – during which time he was in high-profile relationships with actress Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton – Stamp was among the subjects photographed by David Bailey for a set titled Box of Pin-Ups. He starred opposite Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and also had a leading role in Ken Loach's drama Poor Cow (1967) and in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968).

Stamp gained wider fame for his role as archvillain General Zod in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980). For his leading role in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) he earned BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. He then starred in The Limey (1999), earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination. His other films included Wall Street (1987), Young Guns (1988), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), The Haunted Mansion (2003), Elektra (2005), Wanted (2008), Get Smart (2008), Yes Man (2008), Valkyrie (2008), Big Eyes (2014) and Last Night in Soho (2021).

Early life

Terence Henry Stamp, the eldest of five children, was born on 22 July 1938 in Stepney, London, England, the son of Ethel Esther (née Perrott; 1914–1985) and Thomas Stamp (1913–1982), who was a tugboat stoker. His early years were spent in Canal Road, Bow, in the East End, but later in his childhood the family moved to Plaistow, West Ham, Essex (now in Greater London), where he attended Plaistow County Grammar School. His father was away for long periods with the Merchant Navy and the young Stamp was mostly brought up by his mother, grandmother and aunts. He grew up idolising actor Gary Cooper after his mother took him to see Beau Geste (1939) when he was three years old. He was also inspired by the 1950s method-trained actor James Dean.

Growing up in London during World War II, Stamp endured the Blitz as a child. He later aided Valkyrie director Bryan Singer in staging a scene where the von Stauffenbergs hide from the Allied bombings. After leaving school Stamp worked in a variety of advertising agencies in London, working his way up to earning a reasonable salary. In the mid‑1950s he also worked as an assistant to professional golfer Reg Knight at Wanstead Golf Club in east London. He described this period of his life positively in his autobiography Stamp Album.

Personal life and death

In the 1960s, Stamp shared a house with actor Michael Caine in Wimpole Street, London, before and during their rise to fame. In his autobiography, What's It All About (1992), Caine stated "I still wake up sweating in the night as I see Terence agreeing to accept my advice to take the role in Alfie."

Stamp received extensive media coverage of his romances in the 1960s with actress Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton. He and Shrimpton were one of the most-photographed couples of Mod London. After Shrimpton ended her relationship with Stamp, he moved to India and spent time at the ashram of Krishnamurti.

Stamp's brother Chris became a rock music record producer and manager credited with helping to bring the Who to prominence during the 1960s, launching the career of Jimi Hendrix and co-founding Track Records.

In 1984, the band the Smiths released their third single, "What Difference Does It Make?" The single cover was a photograph taken on the set of the film The Collector (but not depicted in the film). Originally, Stamp refused permission for the still to be used, and some pressings featured lead singer Morrissey in a re-enacted scene. In the re-enactment Morrissey is holding a glass of milk, as opposed to the chloroform pad of the original. Eventually, Stamp changed his mind, and the original cover was reinstated.

On New Year's Eve 2002, Stamp married for the first and only time at the age of 64. His 29-year-old bride was Elizabeth O'Rourke, whom Stamp first met in the mid-1990s at a chemist's shop in Bondi, New South Wales. Of Irish-Australian and Indian-Singaporean parentage, O'Rourke was brought up in Singapore before moving to Australia in her early twenties to study pharmacology. The couple divorced on the grounds of his "unreasonable behaviour" in April 2008.

Stamp died on 17 August 2025, at the age of 87.