Tim Curry

Tim CurryCurry in 1995BornTimothy James Curry19 April 1946Grappenhall, Cheshire, EnglandDied25 August 2026 (aged 80)Los Angeles, California, USEducationUniversity of Birmingham (BA)OccupationsActorsingerYears active1967–2025 Timothy James Curry (19 April 1946 – 25 August 2026[1]) was an English actor and singer. Known for his villainous roles on stage and screen, he received an Emmy Award as well as nominations for a Grammy Award, two Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards. He was best known for portraying Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical The Rocky Horror Show (1973–1975)[a] as well as in the musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Curry started his career in the West End production of the musical Hair (1968–1969). He went on to be nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his roles as The Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance (1982) and King Arthur in Spamalot (2007). On Broadway, he earned three Tony Award nominations, his first for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus (1980) and followed by two nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play for My Favorite Year (1992) and Spamalot (2005). Curry received acclaim for his onscreen roles, Rooster Hannigan in Annie (1982), Darkness in Legend (1985), Wadsworth in Clue (1985), Hector, the Plaza front desk receptionist in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (1993), Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), and Gomez Addams in Addams Family Reunion (1998). He also took roles in The Worst Witch (1986), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), Congo (1995), Charlie's Angels (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Kinsey (2004). On television, Curry portrayed Pennywise in the miniseries It (1990) and acted in Oliver Twist (1982), Tales from the Crypt (1992), Will & Grace (2004), and Return to Cranford (2009). He voiced numerous roles including his Daytime Emmy Award-winning performance as Captain Hook on Peter Pan & the Pirates (1990–1991), Hexxus in Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), Sir Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004), and Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012–2014). As a singer, Curry released three rock-focused studio albums: Read My Lips (1978), Fearless (1979), and Simplicity (1981). He was nominated for the Grammy Award for A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning (2002). He released his memoir Vagabond in 2025. Early life and education Timothy James Curry was born on 19 April 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire,[b][2][3] the son of school secretary Patricia and Royal Navy chaplain James Curry. The Currys had met in Malta and married in Egypt.[4] He had an elder sister, Judith.[4][5] Within a year of Curry's birth, the family moved to Hong Kong.[4] During his early childhood, the family moved to a different British seaside town every 18 months, eventually settling in Plymouth when Curry was 11.[6] His father suffered a stroke when Curry was 11,[6] and died of pneumonia in 1958.[2] The family then moved to South London, where Curry attended boarding school.[7] He later attended Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset.[8] Curry developed into a talented boy soprano.[9] Deciding to concentrate on acting, he graduated from the University of Birmingham with a combined BA degree in English and drama in 1968.[10] Career 1968–1975: Breakthrough with Hair and Rocky Horror Curry's full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he met Richard O'Brien,[11] who went on to write Curry's role of Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (1973).[12] Curry recalled his first encounter with the project: I'd heard about the play because I lived on Paddington Street, off Baker Street, and there was an old gym a few doors away. I saw Richard O'Brien in the street, and he said he'd just been to the gym to see if he could find a muscleman who could sing. I said, "Why do you need him to sing?" [laughs] And he told me that his musical was going to be done, and I should talk to Jim Sharman. He gave me the script, and I thought, "Boy, if this works, it's going to be a smash."[13] Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, and later, with an American accent. In March 2005, in an interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air, he explained that he decided to play Dr Frank-N-Furter with an English accent after listening to an English woman say, "Do you have a house in town or a house in the country?," and decided, "Yes, [Dr Frank-N-Furter] should sound like the Queen."[14] Curry originally thought the character was merely a laboratory doctor dressed in a white lab coat. However, at the suggestion of director Sharman, the character evolved into the diabolical mad scientist and transvestite with an upper-class Belgravia accent. An immediate hit, a reviewer at the premiere in London in June 1973 wrote that Curry gives a "garishly Bowiesque performance as the ambisextrous doctor."[15] This change carried over to the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show,[16] which made Curry a household name and gave him a cult following. Curry continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles, and New York City until 1975.[17] In an interview with NPR, Curry called Rocky Horror a "rite of passage", and added that the film is "a guaranteed weekend party to which you can go with or without a date and probably find one if you don't have one, and it's also a chance for people to try on a few roles for size, you know? Figure out, help them maybe figure out their own sexuality."[14] In 2016, Curry played the Criminologist in the television film remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.[18] In 2025, Curry was an invited guest speaker at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to celebrate the film's 50th anniversary.[19] 1975–1989: Film and theater stardom Shortly after the end of Rocky Horror's run on Broadway, Curry returned to the stage with Tom Stoppard's Travesties, which ran in London and New York from 1975 to 1976. Travesties was a Broadway hit. It won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play), and Curry's performance as the famous dadaist Tristan Tzara received good reviews.[20] Curry started his career with small roles in television series, such as Eugene in Napoleon and Love (1974), and guest roles in Armchair Theatre and the BBC's Play for Today including as Glen in Dennis Potter's Schmoedipus (1974).[21] He played William Shakespeare in the John Mortimer-scripted six-part mini-series. Will Shakespeare (1978). Broadcast on ITV in the UK and distributed internationally by ITC, it traces the bard's life from 1590 until his death.[22] Curry had further roles in British television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including the lead in Stephen Frears' 1975 adaptation of Three Men in a Boat, playing Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (1982), playing aspiring actor-singer Larry Gormley in Blue Money (1985), and starring as the Grand Wizard in the children's Halloween film The Worst Witch (1986).[23] After The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Curry began to appear in many films, acting in supporting roles, such as J. in Three Men in a Boat (1975), Robert Graves in the horror film The Shout (1978), as Johnny LaGuardia in Times Square (1980), as Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan in John Huston's 1982 film version of Annie, and as Jeremy Hancock in the political film The Ploughman's Lunch (1983). In 1985, Curry starred in the fantasy film Legend as The Lord of Darkness. Director Ridley Scott cast Curry in the film after watching him in Rocky Horror, thinking he was ideal to play the role of Darkness. It took five and a half hours to apply the makeup needed for Darkness onto Curry, and at the end of the day, he would spend an hour in a bath to liquefy the soluble spirit gum. The same year, Curry appeared in the comedy mystery film Clue as Wadsworth the butler. In 1980, Curry formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Curry was nominated for his first Tony Award (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for this role but lost out to his co-star Ian McKellen, who played Antonio Salieri. In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in the Drury Lane production of Joe Papp's version of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole and Pamela Stephenson, earning enthusiastic reviews.[24] In the mid-1980s, Curry performed in The Rivals and in several plays with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including The Threepenny Opera, Dalliance and Love For Love.[25][26] From 1987 to 1988, he did the American National Tour of Me and My Girl in the lead role of Bill Snibson, a role originated on Broadway by Robert Lindsay.[27] In 1989, Curry returned once again to the New York stage in The Art of Success,[28] and in 1992 played Alan Swann in the Broadway version of My Favorite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.[4] In 2001, Curry appeared as Scrooge in a musical version of the Charles Dickens novella. A Christmas Carol that played at Madison Square Garden.[29] 1990–1999: Established actor