Superman and Star Wars actor Terence Stamp died aged 87 on August 17, 2025, leaving an illustrious legacy of a lifetime of movies behind him. If you’re asking me, the jewel in his crown is undoubtedly The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (known as the latter name for short), following two drag queens and a transgender woman traveling across the Australian desert in a tour bus to take their cabaret show to a remote town. Over 30 years after its release, it still holds a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 94%, and there’s a good reason why.
As Guy Pearce, Stamp’s co-star in Priscilla Queen of Desert, put it in his X/Twitter tribute following the news: “Farewell dear Tel. You were a true inspiration, both in and out of heels. We’ll always have Kings Canyon, Kings Road and F’ing ABBA. Wishing you well on your way ‘Ralph’!” Stamp indeed changed the game with his character Bernadette, still highly regarded as one of the most positive representations of transgender women in LGBTQ+ cinema.
“We talked long and hard about why he’d initially said no. It was fear,” director Stephan Elliot told The Guardian about the casting of the iconic movie. “And fair enough – you have got to remember we were coming out of the HIV/Aids mess. It was a taboo subject. I looked at the work that he’d done all the way through, like the Italian years when he worked with Fellini and Pasolini, and thought: this was a man who took chances. And I think he was at absolutely the right moment in his life where he was ready for another chance.”
But we’re only just scratching the surface of greatness here. You need to experience Priscilla Queen of the Desert in full to truly understand the magic behind what makes it so special, and luckily, it’s currently available to stream for $0 in the US. Not-so-luckily, it’s only free for the next two weeks, so this is your sign to run to Plex while you have the chance.
Why I recommend you watch Terence Stamp’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
It’s sad that death often makes us appreciate what we had after it’s gone, but frankly, I don’t think there’s any better way to honor Stamp’s sheer level of versatility as an actor than to watch Priscilla, Queen of the Desert . As Elliot revealed, Bernadette is a role many actors (including Stamp himself, briefly) would have passed up at the time, because any actor aligning themselves publicly with the LGBTQ+ community immediately risked their career.
While Elliot also stated Stamp complained Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was one of only two movies people wanted to talk to him about (the other being Superman), and would much rather have looked back on movies like 1967’s Far From the Madding Crowd, it’s easy to see why we couldn’t let this musical adventure go. It marks such a fundamental shift of the cultural dial while offering viewers an unfiltered dose of pure happiness and joy in something seldom celebrated (drag, that is). The movie also slotted perfectly into the 1990s wave of cool musical movies, with oddities like The Wedding Singer, Little Voice and Cats bravely following in the footsteps of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert . Being different was finally something to not be ashamed of, and we’ve got people like Stamp to thank for that.
Full to the brim with zingers, effortless chemistry between Stamp, Pearce and Hugo Weaving, and triumph in the face of adversity, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert packs a punch from the moment you start watching. While everything that happens is completely out of the ordinary, it only ever feels natural, and that speaks to the quality of what’s happening in front of and behind the camera. Proud of its own flamboyance, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert strikes an impressive balance between confronting tense social situations and simply having fun, meaning you can just sit back, relax, and trust that you’re about to watch something special. If you don’t want to perform ‘Finally’ along with the penultimate scene, I don’t know what to say to you.
If you miss Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Plex, you'll also be able to catch it on Prime Video, Hoopla, The Roku Channel and MGM+ in the US. Those in the UK and Australia can also stream it on Prime Video.
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