Strikingly handsome British actor hailed for his film roles in Far from the Madding Crowd, Billy Budd and Superman
Terence Stamp, who has died aged 87, was a leading cultural figure of the Swinging Sixties. Despite his extensive and varied work in the decades that followed, the strikingly handsome British actor will always be associated with that exhilarating period, when he was in demand by some of the best directors of the day.
Born in Stepney, east London, Terence was the eldest of five children of Ethel (nee Perrott) and Thomas Stamp, a tugboat captain. He was fortunate that his career began at the time when it helped an actor to have working-class origins. Following Michael Caine, Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay, the cockney Stamp was catapulted into stardom in his early 20s, enjoying all the accoutrements that went with celebrity. This included a romance with Julie Christie, and a three-year relationship with the top fashion model Jean Shrimpton, who made headlines when she left the photographer David Bailey for him.
Stamp spent his early years in the East end until the blitz forced the family to move to Plaistow, then in Essex. As his father was away for long periods in the Merchant Navy, Terence and his siblings were brought up mostly by their mother, grandmother and aunts.
