Playing larger-than-life villains, Tim Curry will be remembered for his talent for bringing light to even the most evil characters.
Curry, who suffered a stroke in 2012 that put him in a wheelchair, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to his longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz. No cause of death was disclosed.
Known for his arch humour, a putty-like face and gift with voices, Curry earned three Tony nominations – for Spamalot, My Favorite Year and Amadeus – and an Emmy nod in 1994.
“I like playing the more curious corners of the human mind and human behaviour, partly because they’re a tad more interesting,” Curry told The Associated Press in 1993.
His standout role of the charismatic anti-hero Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show set the tone for a long career of on-stage ruthlessness and criminality.
From starting out in the West End to acclaimed roles on the big and small screens, his career spanned nearly six decades and saw him portraying human villains such as Rooster Hannigan in the 1982 Annie film and terrifying creatures such as Pennywise the clown in the 1990 horror It.
Born in Cheshire village Grappenhall in 1946, Curry was a talented singer in his youth, with the prospect of pursuing a career in acting coming to him in his mid-teens when attending a school for the sons of Methodist ministers.
Tim Curry promotional photo for the ABC TV series Over the Top in 1997
In 1965 he started studying at the University of Birmingham, once saying he “largely ignored” his academic course to focus on acting.
After graduating, he landed a role in the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968 but it was his seminal role as cross-dressing alien scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 musical film that shot him to stardom.
Curry had initially played the character in the West End in 1973, going on to do so on stage in Los Angeles and in New York City, before also starring in the 1975 film adaptation, which was directed by Tim Sharman – the director of the original stage show.
Speaking at an event at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles to mark the film’s 50th anniversary last year, Curry spoke about it being embraced by the LGBTQ audience.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he said that it “means a lot because I think the message of the film – don’t dream it, be it – is very important”.
“One of the things that the movie does, I think, is give anyone permission to behave as badly as they really want, in whatever way and with whom. And I’m proud of that,” he said.
Tim Curry in 1974
He went on to futilely try to stop Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister from taking advantage of New York’s posh Plaza Hotel in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.
Other screen credits included starring as the child-killing monster in the 1990 miniseries version of Stephen King’s horror novel It and the double-dealing Cardinal Richelieu in 1993’s The Three Musketeers alongside Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen and Chris O’Donnell.
In his 2025 memoir Vagabond, Curry explained that while there were scraps of his nature in his characters, he was none of them.
He wrote: “The distinctions between who I really am and who I’ve pretended to be as an actor have proven to be a source of great disappointment to some audiences. It has not caused me much personal distress beyond the periodic necessity to deter stalkers.”
Tim Curry performs a scene from Monty Python’s Spamalot
In later years, Curry also lent his baritone voice to many voice-acting roles in children’s TV series, beginning with FernGully: The Last Rainforest in 1992 and later featuring in others including The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats In Paris, The Wild Thornberrys Movie and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius.
After a years-long break from live-action roles, he played a plague doctor-masked man in a wheelchair in 2024’s Stream.
Curry never married and had no children.
Source: Press Association