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Terence Stamp—famous for portraying the tyrannical General Zod in Superman and its sequel, Superman II—has died at 87. In a statement released by relatives, the performer—whose credits additionally include The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Limey—passed away early on a Sunday. “He has left behind a remarkable range of performances, both on camera and on the page, destined to move and motivate audiences for generations,” his relatives told Reuters. “We respectfully request privacy as we come to terms with this loss.”
Stamp entered the world in 1938 and first quit school to chase an advertising career, only to pivot toward the stage and land a scholarship at a dramatic-arts academy. The 1960s were his breakout decade—he drew notice in William Wyler’s The Collector and Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise, then shared the screen with Julie Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd.
Years before he clashed with Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel, Stamp was nearly 007 himself, briefly eyed as a potential Bond when Sean Connery was already established in the part. In 2013 he informed The Belfast Telegraph that he believed he lost the gig because his take failed to satisfy producer Harry Saltzman’s checklist. “Like many British thespians, I’d have leaped at playing James Bond—I was born to rock a dinner jacket,” Stamp remarked. “But my vision apparently scared Mr. Saltzman; he never rang again.”
It took only a handful of further roles before Stamp secured global recognition as one of cinema’s most memorable comic-book antagonists, when in 1978 he made a fleeting but unforgettable appearance as the long-time nemesis of the House of El—General Zod—in Richard Donner’s Superman. Though he vanished to the Phantom Zone after limited minutes on screen, his icy presence lingered until 1980’s Superman II, where he snarled the now-legendary demand for Reeve’s hero—and everyone else—to “Kneel before Zod.”
Following Zod’s defeat at the hands of the crimson-caped champion, Stamp remained linked to the Superman mythos in surprising ways. Two-and-a-half decades on, he reclaimed Kryptonian roots by inhabiting Jor-El, father to Tom Welling’s Kal-El/Clark, in the successful prequel series Smallville.
Beyond the realm of Krypton, Stamp added notable turns in Wall Street, Young Guns, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Wanted, and the 2008 Tom C