<\/p>\n
Terence Stamp, the prolific English actor who played General Zod in the \u201cSuperman\u201d films and earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the title character in \u201cBilly Budd,\u201d has died. He was 87.<\/p>\n
Stamp died of undisclosed causes Sunday morning, his family confirmed to Reuters<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cHe 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,\u201d the family said in a statement.<\/p>\n Stamp began his acting career onstage in 1960 on London\u2019s West End, but quickly received international attention and critical acclaim with his 1962 portrayal of the title role in Peter Ustinov\u2019s adaptation of Herman Melville\u2019s historical adventure novel, \u201cBilly Budd.\u201d <\/p>\n The humanity Stamp imbued in the tragic, stammering naval vessel crewman established Stamp as a talent to watch \u2014 with a Golden Globe Award for best male newcomer to prove it. Still, Stamp didn\u2019t fully break through in Hollywood until 1978 when he embodied the chilling persona of Superman\u2019s arch-nemesis, General Zod, in the first film of what would become a wildly successful franchise. Stamp took on the role again in 1982\u2019s \u201cSuperman II.\u201d <\/p>\n Stamp, with his calm demeanor and pale eyes, proved such a successful villain that he feared he was becoming typecast as one. In 1994 he decided to try something radically different when he took on the role of a transgender woman named Bernadette in Stephan Elliott\u2019s now cult-classic film, \u201cPriscilla Queen of the Desert<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The film marked one of the first times a transgender character was portrayed as a lead in an international film. When the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May of that year, The Times\u2019 then film critic, Kenneth Turan, interviewed Stamp for a feature. Stamp told Turan that he had been extremely nervous to play the role, but that a good friend encouraged him to take it, saying, \u201cIf you don\u2019t start doing parts like this all you can look forward to is playing villains in Hollywood movies for the rest of your life,\u201d and that, Stamp said, \u201cstuck fear and loathing into my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPriscilla,\u201d about a group of drag performers on a bus trip to play a show at a resort hotel in the Australian desert, was a critical success, with Turan writing that it, \u201cadded some needed life to the Cannes Film Festival scene,\u201d debuting in a \u201craucous midnight screening.\u201d<\/p>\n