Terence Stamp Biography

Fast Facts

• Decided to become an actor after his mother took him to see Gary Cooper in 1939's Beau Geste
• Made his film debut with an Oscar-nominated performance in the title role of Billy Budd (1962)
• Turned down the chance to reprise his role in a big-screen adaptation of the Broadway production Alfie; the part earned Stamp's onetime roommate, Michael Caine, an Oscar nomination
• Romance with Julie Christie during the filming of 1967's Far From the Madding Crowd inspired the Kinks song "Waterloo Sunset
• " Following his split from model Jean Shrimpton in the late '60s, spent 10 years roaming the world, working sporadically and living in places like an organic farm in Ibiza and an ashram in India
• Played Superman's foe, General Zod, in 1978's big-screen smash Superman; later provided the voice of Superman's father, Jor-El, for the TV series Smallville
• Lived for a time in the 1990s in a converted windmill on Long Island, NY, that was once owned by Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller
• Has published several memoirs, as well as The Wheat-Free and Dairy-Free Cookbook and the 1992 novel The Night