Tim Curry, best known for playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, has died. He was 80 years old.
TMZ reports that Curry died on August 25 after battling health issues for more than a decade. The actor suffered a stroke in 2012 and needed brain surgery. As of last year, he was still unable to walk.
Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, Warrington, England. He studied literature and the performing arts at Birmingham University and transitioned from singing (he began performing in a church choir when he was about six years old) to acting, making his professional debut as Woof in a West End production of Hair in 1968. It was there that he met writer Richard O’Brien, who wrote the part that propelled his career to a new level, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the flamboyant scientist who gave refuge to a stranded All-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) in the bizarre castle full of strangely-clad partygoers, in the 1975 film. (He’d originally played the role in the original London production.) Prior to that role, he had a few one-episode minor guest spots on shows like Armchair Theatre and Napoleon and Love.
Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images
After The Rocky Horror Picture Show, he went on to take on a wide variety of roles, including the title role of Mozart opposite Ian McKellen‘s Salieri in the stage production of Amadeus in 1980 and King Arthur (whose quest for the famed Holy Grail leads him to battle a dogged, limbless knight, a taunting Frenchman who bombards his knights with dead animals, and a killer rabbit with teeth that can pierce armor) in the Broadway production of Spamalot, a musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in 2004. He briefly reprised the role for a revival in London’s West End in 2006. He was nominated for Tony and a Laurence Olivier Awards for his performance.
In TV, Curry starred as The Bard in the six-part historical drama Will Shakespeare in 1978 for ITV. He played the murderous clown Pennywise in ABC’s 1990 miniseries of Stephen King’s It. He also did quite a bit of voice work for animated series such as Fish Police, Batman: The Animated Series, and more in the 1990s. He also shifted to mostly voicework following a stroke in 2012, after which he needed to use a wheelchair. He recurred in Wiseguy, played Simon Doonan in the 1996 miniseries Titanic and Dodo in 2009’s Alice (Syfy’s take on the Lewis Carroll classic fantasy tale), and starred in the short-lived Over the Top in 1997, about a soap opera star who crashed with his ex-wife (Annie Potts) at the hotel she ran after he was fired. He also guest starred on shows like Will & Grace, Psych, and Criminal Minds.
In film, Curry starred as the scheming Rooster, who, with his sister (Carol Burnett) and girlfriend (Bernadette Peters), tried to swindle billionaire Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks (Albert Finney) out of his fortune by claiming to be the orphan’s (Aileen Quinn) parents in the film version of Annie in 1982. He then played the butler Wadsworth in the 1985 movie Clue, a mystery comedy based on the popular Parker Brothers board game also starring Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Brennan and Martin Mull. His other film credits included Legend, The Hunt for Red October, The Three Musketeers, Addams Family Reunion (as Gomez Addams), Charlie’s Angels, Scary Movie 2, and Kinsey.
Curry was nominated for one Emmy, in 1994 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Tales from the Crypt, and won a Daytime Emmy in 1991 for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series for his Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates. He was also nominated for a Grammy in 2002 for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for A Series of Unfortunate Events – Book 1: The Bad Beginning (Lemony Snicket).