British actor Terence Stamp has died, aged 87.

The London-born actor starred opposite Christopher Reeve’s Superman as villain Gerneral Zod, in the popular films, released in the 1970s. Stamp famously starred in hit, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert in 1994.

Stamp played a transgender woman Bernadette in the hit film.

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The actor’s family announced his death on Sunday, with the cause of death not 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.

Stamp called his role in Priscilla one of the best of his career.

He said: “It was only when I got there, and got through the fear, that it became one of the great experiences of my whole career.”

Stamp started his acting career on the stage in the 1950s. He acted in repertory theatre, where he met Michael Caine.

The pair lived in a flat in central London, as they looked for their big break.

Stamp got his big break on Billy Budd in 1962, based on Herman Melville’s seafaring novel. The role got him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

He went on to play a dark-haired psychopath who loves butterflies in 1965’s The Collector.

In 1969, Stamp moved to an ashram in India.

Between 1978 and 2019, Stamp appeared in more than 50 films.

His final film Last Night in Soho was made in 2021.

In his personal life, he had high-profile romances with British supermodel Jean Shrimpton. In 2002, he married Elizabeth O’Rourke, a 29-year-old Australian pharmacist.

However, they divorced in 2008.

Stamp was born in London’s East End, to Thomas Stamp, a tugboat operator with the Merchant Navy, and mother, Ethel.

“When I asked for career guidance at school, they recommended bricklaying as a good, regular job,” Stamp said in a 2011 interview with the Irish newspaper The Sunday Business Post.

“Although someone did think I might make a good Woolworths’ manager.”