Stamp's iconic rise to blockbuster villain

Whether starring as a road-tripping transgender woman in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, an intergalactic super-villain 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.

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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 22 July, 1938. His father stoked ship boilers and his family of seven crammed into a tenement with no bathroom in east London.