British actor Terence Stamp, famous for his roles in Superman and Priscilla, has died.

He was the embodiment of elegance and ease. Some even wrote in his early days in the 1960s that he had "the devil's good looks." Despite this, Terence Stamp , who recently passed away at the age of 87, maintained the modesty of a great actor throughout his life.

His family said in a statement that the actor from The Englishman "died Sunday morning at the age of 87, the cause of death not immediately known." The statement added: "He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and a writer, that will continue to touch and inspire generations."

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Considered a living legend of world cinema, Terence Stamp had an impressive filmography. From William Wyler's The Obsessed (1966), a role for which he received the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, to Pasolini's Theorema , via Richard Donner's Superman Billy Budd , Soderbergh's The Englishman , and the unforgettable Priscilla, Queen of the Desert , Stamp spent his life oscillating between roles as angel and demon. Not to mention his role as Master of the Universe in Star Wars.

Born in London's East End in 1938, the son of a truck driver and a mother who had "instilled in him a zest for life," Terence Henry Stamp came from a poor working-class family. As a child, he endured the bombing of the city during the Second World War and the deprivation that followed.

At a young age, Stamp dropped out of school to work as an errand boy in an advertising agency. He quickly rose through the ranks and won a scholarship to drama school. For a long time, he was careful to keep his acting ambitions secret for fear of family disapproval.

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He soon shared an apartment with Michael Caine in London, and landed the lead role in Peter Ustinov's 1962 adaptation of Billy Budd . The film tells a story of brutality in the 18th ^- century British navy with gritty realism. The role immediately earned him an Oscar nomination.

In May 2013, while in Paris for the release of Paul Andrew Williams' lovely English film Song for Marion, Terence Stamp gave an interview to Le Figaro . He looked back on his career, which has been punctuated by roles as angels and demons. He himself acknowledged this with a certain pride. "I realized very early on that the characters I played could be both angelic and demonic," he confided at the time. "It was Peter Ustinov who first spotted me, offering me the angelic and innocent role of Billy Budd , this maritime Jesus Christ, a sacrificial victim very close to Herman Melville's original novel. Then came The Obsessed , a few years later. Director William Wyler told me: "We're not going to follow John Fowles' book. We're going to make it a modern love story." In any case, the character I play is a serial killer. He's the first to appear in the cinema... So, right from the start, in my first two films, I played an angel and a serial killer. That's why I set myself a goal very young: to be able to play both angels and demons. I think directors quickly perceived that... Whether it was in Pasolini's Theorem, or when I played the terrible General Zod in Superman... "

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Like all Englishmen, Stamp had a sense of humor. He liked to recall that he almost became a tantric sex teacher in an ashram in India when, in 1977, he received a telegram from his London agent telling him he was being considered for Richard Donner's Superman film. "Still, I was on the red-eye the next day," he said in a 2015 interview with his publisher, Watkins Books. After eight years of near unemployment, landing the role of super-villain General Zod in Superman and Superman II propelled the Londoner back into the Hollywood spotlight.

When I was filming Toby Dammit with “Il Maestro,” which was a sketch from his film Histoires extraordinaires, in 1968, I felt that Fellini had helped me progress. He was a real source of inspiration for me.

Terance Stamp

Famous for his good looks and incredible blue eyes, Terence Stamp still failed to land the role of James Bond to succeed Sean Connery after You Only Live Twice . He then went into exile in Italy for a change of scenery. Out of the blue, he started working for Federico Fellini. “Being chosen by him was the greatest compliment an actor could receive,” he boasted. “ When I was shooting Toby Dammit with “Il Maestro,” which was a sketch from his film Histoires extraordinaires , in 1968, I felt that Fellini had helped me improve. He was a real inspiration to me. He loved me. He would come and sit next to me and hold me between takes. I could feel his incredible energy permeating me. It was probably the best experience of my life.”

Once in Rome, Stamp made a string of major Italian films. Pier Paolo Pasolini hired him in 1968 to play the enigmatic visitor who causes a Milanese upper-class family to implode in Theorem. He also appeared in A Season in Hell in 1971. These films caused a scandal, and Stamp moved away from the cinema and went to India for eight years.

It was ultimately his role as the megalomaniacal leader of the Kryptonians in Superman (1978) and its sequel (1980), opposite Christopher Reeve, that relaunched his international career. He made numerous films, notably as a transgender woman in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994.

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In 1999, he also burst onto the screen in Steven Soderbergh's thriller The Englishman . In this astonishing thriller, where an old English gangster wants to avenge his daughter's death against Peter Fonda, the director used scenes from Ken Loach's first film No Tears for Joy , released in 1967. These images capture Terence Stamp in his dazzling beauty. This is undoubtedly how he will remain for a long time: an incandescent, sexy and ambiguous icon from the English Swinging Sixties.