Terence Stamp was one of the defining faces of 1960s London, an Academy Award nominee at twenty-three, and General Zod. In his late fifties he walked into a pharmacy in Sydney and met a woman thirty-five years his junior. It took him five years to persuade her to marry him, and the marriage lasted six.
Quick Bio / At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Elizabeth O’Rourke |
| Known For | Former wife of actor Terence Stamp |
| Raised In | Singapore |
| Education | Moved to Australia to study pharmacology |
| Profession | Pharmacist |
| Met Stamp | Mid-1990s, in a Sydney pharmacy |
| Age Difference | Roughly 35 years |
| Married | 2002, in a private ceremony |
| Marriage Length | Six years |
| Public Profile | None; she has never given an interview |
Who Terence Stamp Was
Stamp came out of the East End of London and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the title role in Billy Budd in 1962, at twenty-three. He became a fixture of the swinging London era, in The Collector, Far from the Madding Crowd and Pasolini’s Teorema.
A long career slump followed, and then one of the more complete second acts in British acting: General Zod in Superman in 1978 and Superman II in 1980, Bernadette in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994, and the lead in Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey in 1999.
He was also a published writer, with several volumes of memoir. He died on August 17, 2025, at the age of 87.
A Pharmacy in Sydney
Elizabeth O’Rourke was raised in Singapore and moved to Australia to study pharmacology. She was working as a pharmacist in Sydney when Stamp came in.
She was twenty-three. He was fifty-eight, and by his own account it was immediate on his side and not on hers.
Five Years, Then a Wedding
By the accounts given at the time, Stamp spent roughly the next five years persuading her that the age gap did not matter. They married in 2002 in a private ceremony, when he was in his sixties.
It was his first marriage. Stamp had been one of the most publicly documented bachelors in British entertainment for four decades, and the fact that he married at sixty-four to a pharmacist rather than to anyone from his own world was, in itself, the story.
The Divorce, and Afterwards
The marriage ended after six years. Neither party has publicly detailed the reasons.
O’Rourke gave no interviews during the marriage and none since. She stepped further out of public view after the divorce and has remained there.
Stamp did not remarry.
What Is Not Known
There is no verified date of birth, no documented family background beyond the Singapore upbringing, no record of her career after the marriage, and no statement from her about any of it.
Profiles supplying a net worth, a current location or a detailed personal history are constructing them. The elements that hold up are the profession, the meeting in Sydney, the 2002 marriage and its length.
Why the Story Persists
Stamp’s death in 2025 sent a great many people back through his life, and the marriage is the part that sits least comfortably with the public image — the perpetual bachelor of 1960s London, marrying quietly at sixty-four, to someone who wanted nothing to do with any of it.
Related profiles: Hermine Poitou and Holly Ann Heston.
