The Stamp of genius

60s acting icon Terence dies aged 87

- FRAN BOWDEN

TERENCE Stamp's talent was timeless but in the Swinging Sixties he was a superhero.

The actor, who died yesterday aged 87, was as much of a heart throb of the decade as ex-flatmate Michael Caine.

However, the big roles dried up at the end of the 60s and he was about to become a tantric sex teacher when he was offered the role of arch-villain General Zod in Superman (1978) opposite his hero Marlon Brando.

Many will remember Stamp as Sergeant Troy, the dashing but selfish soldier in red uniform whom Julie Christie's Bathsheba becomes besotted with in 1967's Far from the Madding Crowd.

He had a relationship with Christie, which was immortalised in Kinks hit Waterloo Sunset that year with the line: “Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station, every Friday night.”

Stamp had humble beginnings in Stepney, East London, where he was born in 1938 as the son of a tugboat stoker.