Latest news with #Theorem
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Terence Stamp: the mesmerisingly seductive dark prince of British cinema
'A stranger arrives, makes love to everyone and then leaves,' said Pier Paolo Pasolini to Terence Stamp, outlining the plot of his 1968 classic Theorem. 'That's your part.' Stamp exclaimed: 'I can play that.' It was the role that the man was born to play and would play, with subtle variations, throughout his career. From his first appearance as the eerily beautiful sailor in 1962's Billy Budd through to his last manifestation as 'the silver-haired gentleman' in Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho, Stamp remained a brilliantly, mesmerisingly unknowable presence. He was the seductive dark prince of British cinema, an actor who carried an air of elegant mystery. 'As a boy I always believed I could make myself invisible,' he once said. He showed up and made magic, but he never stuck around for as long as we wanted. Stamp's talent was timeless but he was a creature of the 60s, forged in the crucible of postwar social mobility and as much a poster boy for the era as his one-time flatmate Michael Caine. 'Terry meets Julie, Waterloo station, every Friday night,' Ray Davies sang on the Kinks's Waterloo Sunset and while he wasn't necessarily singing about Stamp and Julie Christie – at least not consciously – the actors and the song have now become intertwined, part of a collective cultural fabric, to the point where that mental image of the two of them by the Thames is almost as much a part of Stamp's showreel as his actual 60s pictures. He was born in London's East End, the son of a tugboat coalman who regarded acting with horror, and his rough-hewn swagger lent a crucial grit and danger to his refined matinee idol aesthetic. He gave a superb performance – full of seething chippy rage – in 1965's The Collector, a role that won him the best actor prize at Cannes, made an excellent dastardly lover in Far from the Madding Crowd and whipped up a storm in Federico Fellini's uproarious Toby Dammit. But he was always a more febrile movie actor than his compatriots – Caine, Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole – and so his career proved more fragile and never truly bedded down. 'When the 60s ended, I almost did too,' he once said, ruefully acknowledging a decade-long slump that only came to an end when he was cast as General Zod in 1978's Superman. In the subsequent years he played too many off-the-peg Brits – thuggish gangsters, evil businessmen – in subpar productions, although this only made his occasional great role feel all the more precious. Stamp was at his full-blooded best in Stephen Frears's 80s crime drama The Hit, sparked briefly as the devil in The Company of Wolves and was fabulous as Bernadette in 1994's Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. But his great later role – and arguably the ultimate Stamp performance – was in The Limey, Steven Soderbergh's 1999 revenge tale. Soderbergh cast him as Wilson, an ageing career criminal who haunts LA like a ghost. It's a film that is implicitly about Stamp's youth and age, beautifully folding the present-day drama in with scenes in Ken Loach's Poor Cow to show what happened to the golden generation of swinging 60s London – and by implication, what happens to all of us. Sign up to Film Weekly Take a front seat at the cinema with our weekly email filled with all the latest news and all the movie action that matters after newsletter promotion Somewhere along the way, wending his way up the coast to Big Sur, Stamp's knackered criminal stops being a ghost and becomes a kind of living sculpture, a priceless piece of cinema history, returned for one last gig to seduce the world and set it spinning before heading off towards the sunset.
ARN News Center
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ARN News Center
Superman films' star actor Terence Stamp dies aged 87
Terence Stamp, who rose as an actor in 1960s London and went on to play the arch-villain General Zod in the Hollywood hits "Superman" and "Superman II," has died aged 87, his family said on Sunday. The Oscar-nominated actor starred in films ranging from Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theorem in 1968 and A Season in Hell in 1971 to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994. "He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come," the family said. "We ask for privacy at this sad time." The family told Reuters that he had died on Sunday morning. Born in London's East End in 1938, the son of a tugboat stoker, he endured the bombing of the city during World War II before leaving school to work initially in advertising, eventually winning a scholarship to go to drama school. Famous for his good looks and dress sense, he formed one of Britain's most glamorous couples with Julie Christie, with whom he starred in Far From the Madding Crowd in 1967. He also dated the model Jean Shrimpton and was chosen as a muse by photographer David Bailey. After failing to land the role of James Bond to succeed Sean Connery, he appeared in Italian films and worked with Federico Fellini in the late 1960s. He dropped out of the limelight and studied yoga in India before landing his most high-profile role as General Zod, the megalomaniacal leader of the Kryptonians, in Superman in 1978 and its sequel in 1980. He went on to appear in a string of other films, including Valkyrie with Tom Cruise in 2008, The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon in 2011 and movies directed by Tim Burton.
News24
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News24
Terence Stamp dead At 87: Remembering the 1960s legend and screen chameleon
Terence Stamp, a celebrated British actor, rose to fame in 1960s cinema, earning a Golden Globe and numerous accolades, including Best Actor at Cannes. Known for captivating audiences in both indie and blockbuster films, he played roles ranging from brooding villains to enigmatic and diverse characters. Stamp's career highlights include portraying General Zod in Superman II, Bernadette in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and appearing in classics like Pasolini's Theorem and Fellini's Spirits of the Dead. British actor Terence Stamp, a leading man of 1960s cinema before reinventing himself in a series of striking roles - including as Superman villain General Zod - has died aged 87, UK media cited his family announcing Sunday. 'He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer, that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come', media quoted the family saying. Stamp exploded onto the screen in the 1960s as a leading man, even then, sometimes playing troubled characters. At one point, he seemed to specialise in playing brooding villains. Later still, he broke out of that typecasting to play a partying transgender woman in 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. From Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Theorem' to a villain's role in one of the 'Star Wars' films, the handsome leading man captivated audiences in both arthouse films and Hollywood blockbusters. He lent his magnetic presence to more than 60 films during a career that spanned a range of genres. Heroes and villains The London actor from a working-class background, born on 22 July 1938, had his first breakthrough in Peter Ustinov's 'Billy Budd'. His performance as a dashing young sailor hanged for killing one of his crewmates earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for Best New Actor. Carving out a niche for his alluring depictions of broody villains, he won Best Actor at Cannes in 1965 for 'The Collector', a twisted love story adapted by William Wyler from John Fowles's bestselling novel. His 1967 encounter with Federico Fellini was transformative. The Italian director was searching for the 'most decadent English actor' for his segment in an adaptation of 'Spirits of the Dead', a collection of Edgar Allan Poe stories. Fellini cast him as 'Toby Dammit', a drunken actor seduced by the devil in the guise of a little girl. Another Italian great, Pasolini, who cast him in the cult classic 'Theorem', saw him as a 'boy of divine nature'. In the 1969 film, Stamp played an enigmatic visitor who seduced an entire bourgeois Milanese family. 'Kneel before Zod!' He also had a relationship with Jean Shrimpton - a model and beauty of the sixties - before she left him towards the end of the decade. 'I was so closely identified with the 1960s that when that era ended, I was finished with it', he once told French daily Liberation. But the dry spell did not last long. Stamp revived his career for some of his most popular roles, including in 1980s 'Superman II', as Superman's arch-nemesis General Zod. His famous line from that film, 'Kneel before Zod!' was spreading online in social media tributes after the news broke of his death. Other roles followed, including that of Bernadette, a transgender woman in 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' (1994), in which Stamp continued his exploration of human ambiguity, this time in fishnet stockings. He continued to pursue a wide-ranging career, jumping between big-budget productions such as 'The Phantom Menace', one of the Star Wars films, to independent films like Stephen Frears's 'The Hit'.
The Herald
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald
Actor Terence Stamp, star of Superman films, 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 the Hollywood hits 'Superman' and 'Superman II', has died aged 87, his family said on Sunday. The Oscar-nominated actor starred in films ranging from Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Theorem' in 1968 and 'A Season in Hell' in 1971 to 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' in 1994 in which he played a transgender woman. The family said in a statement to Reuters that Stamp died on Sunday morning. 'He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,' the family said. 'We ask for privacy at this sad time.' Born in London's East End in 1938, the son of a tugboat stoker, he endured the bombing of the city during World War 2 before leaving school to work initially in advertising, eventually winning a scholarship to go to drama school. Famous for his good looks and impeccable dress sense, he formed one of Britain's most glamorous couples with Julie Christie, with whom he starred in 'Far From the Madding Crowd' in 1967. He also dated the model Jean Shrimpton and was chosen as a muse by photographer David Bailey. After failing to land the role of James Bond to succeed Sean Connery, he appeared in Italian films and worked with Federico Fellini in the late 1960s. He dropped out of the limelight and studied yoga in India before landing his most high-profile role — as General Zod, the megalomaniacal leader of the Kryptonians, in 'Superman' in 1978 and its sequel in 1980. He went on to appear in a string of other films, including 'Valkyrie' with Tom Cruise in 2008, 'The Adjustment Bureau' with Matt Damon in 2011 and movies directed by Tim Burton. Reuters
eNCA
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- eNCA
Terence Stamp, 60s icon and Superman villain, dies
LONDON - British actor Terence Stamp, a leading man of 1960s cinema before reinventing himself in a series of striking roles - including as Superman villain General Zod - has died aged 87, UK media cited his family announcing Sunday. "He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come," media quoted the family saying. Stamp, exploded on to the screen in the 1960s as a leading man, even then sometimes playing troubled characters. At one point, he seemed to specialise in playing brooding villains. Later still, he broke out of that typecasting to play a partying transgender woman in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". From Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Theorem" to a villain's role in one of the "Star Wars" films, the handsome leading man captivated audiences in both arthouse films and Hollywood blockbusters. He lent his magnetic presence to more than 60 films during a career that spanned a range of genres. Heroes and villains The London actor from a working-class background, born on July 22, 1938, had his first breakthrough in in Peter Ustinov's "Billy Budd". His performance as a dashing young sailor hanged for killing one of his crew-mates earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for Best New Actor. Carving out a niche for his alluring depictions of broody villains, he won Best Actor at Cannes in 1965 for "The Collector", a twisted love story adapted by William Wyler from John Fowles's bestselling novel. His 1967 encounter with Federico Fellini was transformative. The Italian director was searching for the "most decadent English actor" for his segment in an adaptation of "Spirits of the Dead", a collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories. Fellini cast him as "Toby Dammit", a drunken actor seduced by the devil in the guise of a little girl. Another Italian great, Pasolini, who cast him in the cult classic "Theorem", saw him as a "boy of divine nature". In the 1969 film, Stamp played an enigmatic visitor who seduced an entire bourgeois Milanese family. - 'Kneel before Zod!' - He also had a relationship with Jean Shrimpton - a model and beauty of the sixties - before she left him towards the end of the decade. "I was so closely identified with the 1960s that when that era ended, I was finished with it," he once told French daily Liberation. But the dry spell did not last long. Stamp revived his career for some of his most popular roles, including in 1980's "Superman II", as Superman's arch-nemesis General Zod. His famous line from that film, "Kneel before Zod!" was spreading online in social media tributes after the news broke of his death. Other roles followed, including that of Bernadette, a transgender woman in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" (1994), in which Stamp continued his exploration of human ambiguity, this time in fishnet stockings. He continued to pursue a wide-ranging career, jumping between big-budget productions such a villain's role in "The Phantom Menace" one of the Star Wars films to independent films like Stephen Frears's "The Hit".
