Stamp initially gained fame when he starred in the title role of the 1962 film Billy Budd. Directed by Peter Ustinov, who also played a part, this black and white drama earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, marking his sole Oscar nod throughout his extensive career.

During the 1960s, he featured in numerous films, including John Schlesinger’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, and Ken Loach’s debut film, Poor Cow.

Stamp rose to stardom from modest origins in the East End of London, a world away from Hollywood glamour. He was born on July 22, 1938, to Ethel and Thomas, a merchant seaman.

In a 2013 interview with the British Film Institute (BFI), Stamp revealed that his father tried to deter him from a career in showbiz.

“He genuinely believed that people like us didn’t do things like that,” he said. But his mother, he said, “loved every second of it.”

“Looking back, my mother likely always wanted me to pursue acting and hoped to support me more, but my father was the family authority, and I never truly understood his take on it since he was from that older generation,” he reflected.

“He was a merchant seaman, he shovelled coal, and in that confined living quarters any show of emotion would have been considered unbearably flash.”

Stamp became a leading figure in 1960s London, famously involved with model Jean Shrimpton and actresses Julie Christie, his co-star in Far From the Madding Crowd, and Brigitte Bardot.

His only marriage came in 2002 – to an Australian pharmacist 35 years his junior – but that lasted just six years, according to the Guardian.

Stamp famously roomed with fellow actor Michael Caine, who was also a rising star at the time. The pair lost touch, however, as he disclosed in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in 2015.

“We just went different ways. I can understand it: in many ways he was much more mature than me,” he said of Caine, who was five years older.

“Caine gave me all my early values, like making sure you were doing good stuff, waiting for the right things – then as soon as he got away he did exactly the opposite. Went from one movie to another.”

After a few years away from the screen, Stamp appeared in the 1978 blockbuster Superman as the superhero’s adversary, General Zod. He reprised the role of the comic book villain in the sequel two years later.

More than two decades later Stamp went on to voice the role of Superman’s father Jor-El in the TV series Smallville.

His many screen credits also included his role as drag queen and trans woman Bernadette in the 1990s Australian comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Of his eclectic career – including roles in Hollywood’s Wall Street and The Adjustment Bureau – he told The Guardian that he had no ambitions, adding: “I’ve had bad experiences and things that didn’t work out; my love for film sometimes diminishes but then it just resurrects itself.

“I never have to gee myself up, or demand a huge wage to get out of bed in the morning. I’ve done crap, because sometimes I didn’t have the rent. But when I’ve got the rent, I want to do the best I can.”