Terence Stamp known for playing Superman's arch-villain General Zod

English actor Terence Stamp liked to recall how he was on the verge of becoming a tantric sex teacher at an ashram in India when, in 1977, he received a telegram from his London agent with news that he was being considered for the Superman film.

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LONDON - English actor Terence Stamp liked to recall how he was on the verge of becoming a tantric sex teacher at an ashram in India when, in 1977, he received a telegram from his London agent with news that he was being considered for the Superman film.

"I was on the night flight the next day," Stamp said in an interview with his publisher Watkins Books in 2015.

After eight years largely out of work, getting the role of the arch-villain General Zod in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980) turned the full glare of Hollywood's limelight on the Londoner.

Buoyed by his new role, Stamp said he would respond to curious looks from passers-by with the command, "Kneel before Zod, you b*****d," which usually went down a storm.

He died on Aug 17, aged 87, his family said in a statement. The cause was not immediately known.

"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 statement said.

Terence Henry Stamp was born in London's East End on July 22, 1938, the son of a tugboat coal stoker and a mother who Stamp said gave him his zest for life. As a child, he endured the bombing of the city during World War II and the deprivations that followed.