Biography
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b. London, 1939

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What the hell was Terence Stamp doing in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (99, George Lucas)—and why was he looking so angry? Because he'd had no direction and couldn't follow the script? Because the rubbishy movie was poor sixtieth birthday present for one of the most beautiful actors on film?...(scroll down)

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Because he'd been this thankless route before—with an equally inane General Zod in the absurd but pompous Superman (78, Richard Donner)? Or was it because he guessed that he wouldn't even figure in the abbreviated cast list for Phantom Menace in the New York Times review?

What are the reasons behind his apparent moodiness? After all, in the 80s the ultimate compliment of hippiness in the UK was to have your picture used on the cover of a Smiths record. A publicity shot from The Collector showing Stamp holding a chloroform pad was used for the cover for the single What Difference Does It Make. After some copies were printed, Stamp decided he didn't want his photo to be used and the rest of the copies appeared with Morrissey in the exact same pose, looking very much like him but holding a glass of milk instead. Though later Stamp agreed and the photo was re-instated on the 12" single cover, the damage had been done and left viewers yet again perplexed by his 'offish' manner.

Is he chilly, difficult, a loner—or does he just give haughty imitations of those qualities? Whatever, it is remarkable that he hasn't been more important: for he is a good actor, very striking looking, and seldom far from magic at his best. He was the actor in the 60s who had it all, his fingerprints over the most beautiful actresses and models of his generation in real life and also getting well paid for having his fingerprints over the most beautiful actresses of his generation in front of the camera. Stamp was the one, the man with the golden future ahead of him. The 70s, 80s & 90s were a disappointmnet and the promise was never fully realized. Is it now too late for some great venture which could take the fatalism out of his eyes—or make it one of the most alarming things we've ever seen?

He was a real cockney and working-class before Peter Ustinov put him in the lead role in Billy Budd (62), where he effortlessly suggested Melville's intimation of a seaman Christ. He seemed like a new star, but within a few years his career choices were those of a determined lone wolf—and so he has remained: Term of Trial (62, Peter Glenville); as the young man after butterflies in The Collector (65, William Wyler)—for which he won the best actor prize at Cannes; sidekick to Modesty Blaise (66, Joseph Losey), as the soldier in Far from the Madding Crowd (67, John Schlesinger); Poor Cow (67, Kenneth Loach); Blue (68, Silvio Narizzano); in Fellini's episode of Spirits of the Dead (68); as the mysterious stranger who masters everyone in Teorema - Pier Paolo Pasolini); as the man who emerges from a caven in The Moods of Mr. Sommer (70, Alan Cooke).

Then for several years he traveled and made only a few foreign films before his strictly supporting parts in a TV Thief of Baghdad (78, Clive Donner) and Superman. He seemed fully committed to the quest for the mystery of existence in Meetings with Remarkable Men (78, Peter Brook) and the bizarre sex intrigues of I Love You, I Love You Not (79, Americo Balducci).

If he had become disenchanted with film, his work now only explained that malaise: Monster Island (80, Juan Piquer Simon); Superman II (80, Donner); Death in the Vatican (81, Marcello Aliprandi). But then he gave maybe his greatest performance as the betrayer being brought home to death in The Hit (84, Stephen Frears), in which he worked wonderfully with John Hurt and Tim Roth and made clear that he was one of England's best actors. In which case how could one explain Link (84, Richard Franklin) or his stooge role in Legal Eagles (86, Ivan Reitman)?

Since then, he has made The Sicilian (87, Michael Cimino); Wall Street (87, Oliver Stone); Young Guns (88, Christopher Cain); Alien Nation (88, Graham Baker); Stranger in the House (91), which he directed; The Real McCoy (93, Russell Mulcahy); The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (94, Stephen Elliott), in which he was faultless as the transsexual; Mindbender (95, Ken Russell); the sex guru of all time in Bliss (97, Lance Young); Kiss the Sky (98, Roger Young); Love Walked In (98, Juan Jose Campanella).

In 1999, reviving footage from Poor Cow, he had a great personal success in The Limey (99, Steven Soderbergh)—it was the same territory as The Hit, but neither as sharp nor as cerebral. Still, the world was ready to acclaim him at last. He was also in Bowfinger (99, Frank Oz); Red Planet (00, Antony Hoffman); Ma Femme Est une Actrice (01, Yvan Attal); Revelation (01, Stuart Urban).

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