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RTHK
an hour ago
- RTHK
Actor Terence Stamp dies aged 87
Actor Terence Stamp dies aged 87 Terence Stamp, who made his name as an actor in 1960s London and went on to play the arch-villain General Zod in "Superman" and "Superman II", has died aged 87. File photo: Reuters Whether starring as a road-tripping transgender woman in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", an intergalactic supervillain in "Superman" or a mysterious beauty in "Theorem", Terence Stamp, who died on Sunday at 87, captivated audiences in experimental films and Hollywood blockbusters alike. His bold, decades-long career swung between big productions Michael Cimino's "The Sicilian" to independent films such as Stephen Frears's "The Hit" or Steven Soderbergh's "The Limey". An emblem of London's "Swinging Sixties", he showed off a magnetic screen presence from his earliest roles, immediately gaining awards and fans. He made his breakthrough in 1962 playing an angelic sailor hanged for killing one of his crewmates in Peter Ustinov's "Billy Budd", earning an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. He would also win best male actor at Cannes in 1965 for "The Collector", a twisted love story based on a John Fowles novel. Stamp was born in London on July 22, 1938. His father stoked ship boilers and his family of seven crammed into a tenement with no bathroom in east London. In later interviews, he would recount experiencing hunger during his childhood, as well as facing problems at school because of his working-class accent. Inspired by Gary Cooper and James Dean, he dreamed of being an actor from an early age and left home at 17 – taking a scholarship to a drama school against his father's wishes. In the early 1960s, British cinema began to take an interest in the working class and Ken Loach hired Stamp for his first film, "Poor Cow" in 1967. His meeting with Italian director Federico Fellini that same year was decisive. While searching for "the most decadent English actor" for his segment of "Spirits of the Dead", Fellini cast Stamp as a drunk actor seduced by the devil in the guise of a little girl. Another Italian director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, cast him in 1969's "Theorem" as an enigmatic outsider who seduces the members of a bourgeois Milan family. But Stamp's scandalous roles fell out of fashion and he struggled to find work for a decade. He embarked on a mystical world tour and settled in India, where he was studying in an ashram in 1977 when his agent got in touch and offered him the role of General Zod in "Superman". His career took off again and he soon became a go-to face for Hollywood directors looking for British villains. The role of Bernadette in "Priscilla" came in the mid-1990s, just as he was growing weary of those Hollywood hardmen roles. A few years later though, he returned to familiar stomping ground for the "The Limey", playing a British ex-con who travels to California to find out who killed his daughter. One of his last films, Last Night in Soho (2021), was a supernatural thriller in which a teenager was haunted by characters from London's Swinging Sixties – bringing Stamp full circle on a dazzling career. (AFP)
South China Morning Post
13 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Chinese artist Fan Zeng, 87, ‘taken away' by new wife, valuable works missing: daughter
Prominent Chinese artist Fan Zeng has been 'taken away' by his new wife and most of his valuable possessions have also 'gone missing', his daughter has alleged. 'Rumours have circulated online recently claiming my father, Fan Zeng, was forcibly removed from his home and has since gone missing,' Fan Xiaohui said in a social media post on Saturday. 'As his daughter, I want to first thank everyone for their concern, but I am deeply anxious about his health and safety.' Fan Zeng, 87, announced his marriage to Xu Meng, who is reportedly 50 years his junior, last year. He has been married a few times, and his previous wife died several years ago. Xu is 37 and a TV presenter for state media, according to Chinese media reports. Fan's daughter said she lost track of him after they last met in early July. She had been overseas since but was shocked to find his Beijing house sealed and empty upon her recent return, according to her post.
South China Morning Post
19 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China hosts exhibition emphasising ‘Russianness' of realist painter Ilya Repin
An exhibition of works by Ilya Repin – the realist painter at the centre of a culture war between Moscow and Kyiv – has opened in Beijing as part of an exchange series between China and Russia. A collection of 48 oil paintings and 44 sketches by Repin (1844-1930), one of the most renowned 19th-century artists in the Russian Empire, is on show at the National Museum of China. The exhibition – titled 'Ilya Repin: Encyclopedia of Russian Life' – will run until mid-January as part of the 2024-25 Russian-Chinese Years of Culture as the neighbouring countries mark 75 years of diplomatic ties. The exhibition – titled 'Ilya Repin: Encyclopedia of Russian Life ' – opened last month. Photo: Xinhua Tatyana Yudenkova, deputy director of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, said the exhibition would emphasise Repin's 'Russianness' through important periods of his life, from his early years at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg to his later years on the Gulf of Finland in the early 1900s. 'The colour scheme of the [Beijing museum] halls is blue, green, dark beige. The classical columns, pediments and other elements of the order architecture of classicism will remind us of the academic period of study in St Petersburg,' Yudenkova told Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta last month. The exhibition comes as Ukraine, a former member of the Soviet Union, is trying to reclaim its cultural identity from perceived Russian appropriation amid a protracted war . There is contention over everything from language to churches and celebrated artists like Ukrainian-born Repin, whose national identity is claimed by both Russia and Ukraine. In January, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications in Kyiv said the works of Repin – known as Illia Riepin or Ripyn in Ukraine – were part of its national cultural heritage.
