Inside Terence Stamp’s wild life, from Michael Caine to Princess Diana

He put his stamp on it. 

“Superman” actor Terence Stamp, who died at age 87 on Sunday, had a life that was even more colorful behind the scenes than it was onscreen. 

Born in London in 1938, the late actor grew up with a working-class background. He rose to the spotlight in the 1960s, and had several claims to fame, including a friendship with Princess Diana, being roommates with Michael Caine, and rumored trysts with many of the era’s iconic beauties, including Brigitte Bardot, Julie Christie and Jean Shrimpton.

About rooming with Caine when the two young actors were looking for their big break, Stamp told The Guardian in 2015, “Caine gave me all my early values, like making sure you were doing good stuff, waiting for the right things.” 

He didn’t mince words when he noted, “as soon as he got away he did exactly the opposite. Went from one movie to another.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stamp and Caine’s friendship wasn’t lifelong. 

Stamp explained, “We just went different ways. I can understand it: in many ways he was much more mature than me.” 

The Oscar-nominated actor had been rumored to be romantically linked to Princess Diana. However, in a 2012 interview with Daily Mail, he said he regretted that piece of gossip.

“We were just really good chums, yet I still get asked questions alluding to something more. She was a lot of fun – we used to have lunch at San Lorenzo and her company was heaven.” 

In his 2017 memoir, “Ocean Fell Into The Drop,” Stamp said they met through a mutual friend, art dealer Oliver Hoare. 

“We got on amazingly well… I saw the sadness in her because she’d gone into a marriage believing – she was a believer in marriage. And it didn’t turn out the way she expected it to.”

He insisted there were no sparks. 

“It wasn’t like that. I thought that was the last thing she needed really. She just wanted somebody to talk to that was a guy, who would give her objective opinions. And because of that we just kind of opened up to each other. It wasn’t a formal thing, we’d just meet up for a cup of tea, or sometimes we’d have a long chat for an hour.”

During his 2015 interview with The Guardian, Stamp recalled that his relationship with Julie Christie, 85, happened before they both rose to fame. The pair starred in the 1967 film “Far From The Madding Crowd” together. 

“We met, and we had a romance. That was it. When I got my first movie, I knew it was my destiny to be a film actor, so that became my motivation in life.”

He insisted that while filming the movie, the fact that she was his girlfriend “never came up.”

“I saw her as Bathsheba, the character she was playing, who all the men in the film fell in love with. It wasn’t hard, with somebody like Julie.”

He told Daily Mail in 2012 that supermodel Jean Shrimpton, 82, was “the love” of his life.

“It was in Hollywood in 1964. Just to lay eyes on her was a joy. We were together for three years,” Stamp recalled.  

In his memoir, he said, “She left me because she saw I was a lunatic. I wasn’t ready for a twin-soul relationship.”

Despite his colorful array of romances and friends, and his impressive resume, which also included 1962’s “Billy Budd,” the role that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Stamp never became a huge star, and all but vanished from the spotlight in the ’70s. 

He was his own worst enemy, reportedly missing out on the opportunity to replace Sean Connery as James Bond. 

Reflecting on that period, he told The Guardian, “It’s a mystery to me. I was in my prime. When the 1960s ended, I just ended with it.”

Stamp recalled that his agent told him that movies were “all looking for a young Terrance Stamp.’ And I thought: ‘I am young.’ I was 31, 32. I couldn’t believe it.”

He added, “It was tough to wake up in the morning, and the phone not ringing. I thought: this can’t be happening now, it’s only just started. The day-to-day thing was awful, and I couldn’t live with it. So I bought a round-the-world ticket and left.” 

Stamp went on an extended trip to India, where he got involved in yoga, vegetarianism, and living at an ashram.

He told the outlet how, in the ‘60s, his friend Federico Fellini introduced him to the Indian mystic Krishnamurti, which sparked his interest. 

Stamp’s career bounced back in 1978 when he played General Zod in “Superman,” opposite Christopher Reeve, a role he would reprise in the 1980 sequel. 

His final movie was in the trendy 2021 thriller “Last Night in Soho.” Although his career continued after his hiatus, it never saw the highs that his early years promised.

“During that time away from the screen, I had transmuted myself,” he told The Guardian. 

“I no longer saw myself as a leading man. What had happened inside of me enabled me to take the role, and not feel embarrassed or depressed about playing the villain,” he said, referring to “Superman.” 

He explained, “I just decided I was a character actor now and I can do anything.”

Stamp also had some eccentric habits. He didn’t own a home because he was living the “stroller player life” as he called it.

“Where I came from, to own a house was something unreal – so when I had money, I gave houses to everyone: my parents, my aunt. But I never felt I needed to own one,” he said. 

Despite his high-profile relationships, he married just once, to Australian pharmacist Elizabeth O’Rourke, from 2002 to their 2008 divorce, and had no children. At the time of their marriage, she was 29 and he was 64. 

His roles didn’t seem to indicate a career strategy, as he played a villain in “Superman,” a drag queen in “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” and a grandfather in later films.

“I don’t have any ambitions,” he said.

“I’m always amazed there’s another job, I’m always very happy. I’ve had bad experiences and things that didn’t work out; my love for film sometimes diminishes but then it just resurrects itself,” he told the Guardian. 

“I never have to gee myself up, or demand a huge wage to get out of bed in the morning.”