Actor Terence Stamp, the treacherous Zod from 'Superman,' dies

BarcelonaTerence Stamp, one of the finest English actors of the vibrant generation of the 1960s, died this Sunday at the age of 87, according to his family. Stamp used his magnetism and acting talent to embody dark and complex characters such as the kidnapper ofThe collector (1965), the mysterious visitor from Theorem (1968) or the evil Zod of Superman (1978) and Superman 2 (1980). But it also reached the hearts of the public thanks above all to Bernadette de The Adventures of Priscilla (1987), one of the first transgender characters to be addressed in an empathetic and respectful manner in mainstream cinema.

A roommate of Michael Caine when both actors were making a living in the London theatre scene, Stamp made his debut in The infernal frigate (1962), a naval adventure film set during the Napoleonic Wars that earned him his only Oscar nomination. Having become one of the hottest young actors of the moment, he attracted the attention of the era's great directors: William Wyler made him the psychopath obsessed with an art student.The collector –for which he received an award at Cannes–, and Joseph Losey saw in Stamp the charisma and sense of humor to play Monica Vitti's right-hand man in the spy comedy Modesty Blaise (1966). Pier Paolo Pasolini also noticed him, who in the masterful Theorem reserved for him the enigmatic role of the young man who alters the behavior of a bourgeois family.

The 1960s were Stamp's prodigious decade, in which he worked with most of the great English directors of the time: with John Schlesinger in the adaptation of Thomas Hardy, Far from the worldly noise (1967), sharing the bill with his partner at the time, Julie Christie; and with Ken Loach in Poor cow (1967), one of the first aesthetic dramas kitchen sink from the quintessential British working-class filmmaker. He was also commissioned by international filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, with whom he filmed an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story, Toby Dammit, included in the episodic film Extraordinary stories (1968).

A ruthless general

But Stamp's character that connected most with the public was that of General Zod, the Kryptonian military man and sworn enemy of Jor-El who appeared in a sequence of the first Superman (1978) and returned as the superhero's ultimate nemesis in the 1980 sequel. Zod's slender figure wasn't intimidating, but his cold, calculating gaze was; Zod was a villain as powerful as Superman, but what was fascinating about the character was his perfidy, touched by a very fine sense of humor. Perhaps there wasn't a more chilling and complex villain in superhero cinema until the arrival of Thanos.

Stamp's later career abounded with supporting roles in titles such as Neil Jordan's horror tale, In the company of wolves (1986), the thriller Oliver Stone's financier, Wall Street (1987), or the western youth Young Gun (1988), but also a leading role in the Spanish post-war drama Beltenebros, by Pilar Miró, for which the actor won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale. Now, the two key films of his mature period are The Adventures of Priscilla, in which she overflows with charisma and humanity in the construction of the character of the drag queen Bernadette, and The English Falcon (1999), one of Steven Soderbergh's best films, one thriller tense and exciting that uses fragments of Poor cow as flashbacks, giving the mature, tormented gangster who plays Stamp an unexpected depth. The actor never shone at the same level again, but it was always a pleasure to enjoy his presence in titles like Valkyrie, Big eyes or, above all, in Last Night in Soho (2021), his return to 1960s London.