Tim Curry, Iconic ‘Rocky Horror,’ ‘Clue’ And ‘IT’ Star, Dead At 80

There are character actors, there are movie stars, and then there was Tim Curry.

The legendary British performer, whose unmistakable voice, mischievous smile and fearless commitment transformed everything from a sweet transvestite scientist to a murderous clown into pop-culture history, has died. He was 80.

For generations of fans, Curry wasn’t associated with only one character.

He was Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

He was Pennywise.

He was Wadsworth.

He was Rooster Hannigan.

He was Long John Silver.

And depending on when you discovered him, there is probably another Tim Curry performance that immediately comes to mind.

Few performers could be frightening, hilarious, theatrical and completely ridiculous—sometimes within the same scene—as effortlessly as Curry could.

Tim Curry Made Frank-N-Furter A Cultural Icon

Any discussion of Curry’s career inevitably begins with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Before the 1975 movie became one of the most enduring cult films ever made, Curry originated the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the stage production of The Rocky Horror Show.

It became the performance that changed his life.

Frank-N-Furter could have easily become a caricature in another actor’s hands. Curry approached the character with complete confidence, sexuality, humor and theatrical extravagance.

He didn’t wink at the audience because the material was strange.

He committed to it.

That commitment helped turn a movie that initially struggled to find an audience into a phenomenon.

Midnight screenings became rituals. Fans arrived dressed as characters. Audiences shouted lines back at the screen. New generations continued discovering the film decades after its original release.

And standing at the center of all of it was Curry.

Fishnets.

Heels.

Makeup.

That voice.

There has never really been another Frank-N-Furter like him.

Clue Gave Curry Another Unforgettable Character

If Rocky Horror demonstrated Curry’s theatricality, Clue demonstrated just how good his comic timing could be.

Curry played Wadsworth, the increasingly frantic butler attempting to navigate an absurd murder mystery involving an ensemble that included Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Lesley Ann Warren, Michael McKean, Martin Mull and Eileen Brennan.

The 1985 comedy famously wasn’t an immediate success.

Like Rocky Horror, time was considerably kinder to it.

Clue became a cult favorite, and Curry’s performance remains one of the primary reasons why.

The movie’s frantic final stretch gives him an opportunity to practically conduct the entire cast as Wadsworth races through the mansion recreating the evening’s murders at increasingly ridiculous speed.

It’s exhausting just watching him.

Curry somehow makes it look effortless.

Then He Terrified An Entire Generation As Pennywise

For some viewers, Tim Curry wasn’t funny at all.

He was the reason they became afraid of clowns.

Curry portrayed Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 television adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, delivering a performance that remained the definitive screen interpretation of the character for decades.

The makeup certainly helped.

But Curry didn’t need it.

His Pennywise could move from playful to murderous almost instantaneously. The character frequently seemed amused by the terror he was creating, making his appearances even more unsettling.

Long before Bill Skarsgård reinvented Pennywise for a new generation, Curry had already made the clown one of horror’s most recognizable villains.

His performance also demonstrated something that defined much of his career.

Curry understood exactly how far to push a character.

And then he’d push just a little further.

Tim Curry Could Make A Villain Incredibly Fun

Hollywood quickly realized Curry was extraordinarily good at playing bad guys.

That could have trapped him.

Instead, he turned villainy into an art form.

In 1982’s Annie, he played Rooster Hannigan alongside Carol Burnett’s Miss Hannigan and Bernadette Peters’ Lily St. Regis.

In Ridley Scott’s Legend, Curry disappeared beneath extraordinary makeup to play Darkness, creating one of the most visually imposing fantasy villains of the 1980s.

He played Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers.

Then came Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, where Curry accomplished the impressive feat of sharing scenes with puppets while somehow being the most theatrical person on screen.

He understood the assignment every single time.

If the movie needed a villain audiences could hate, Curry could provide one.

If it needed a villain audiences secretly wanted to keep watching, he was even better.

Home Alone 2 Turned A Facial Expression Into Comedy Gold

Curry didn’t even need to play the primary villain to steal a movie.

His appearance as Plaza Hotel concierge Mr. Hector in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York introduced him to another enormous generation of viewers.

The character spends much of the movie suspicious of Kevin McCallister, eventually discovering that Kevin has checked into the hotel using his father’s credit card.

Curry takes what could have been a relatively small supporting role and turns practically every reaction into comedy.

One facial expression in particular—the enormous grin following Kevin’s fake television interrogation—became instantly recognizable long before reaction GIFs were even part of internet culture.

That was Curry.

Give him a few scenes and he could make sure you remembered him.

His Voice Became Just As Famous As His Face

Curry’s extraordinary voice eventually created another career entirely.

He became one of animation and video games’ most prolific voice performers, appearing across projects including The Wild Thornberrys, Gargoyles, Peter Pan & the Pirates, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and countless others.

He could make a character sound sophisticated, sinister or completely unhinged with seemingly minor changes in delivery.

His voice work earned him a Daytime Emmy Award and allowed Curry to continue reaching younger audiences who sometimes had no idea the same man was responsible for characters their parents had grown up watching.

He also became memorable to generations of gamers through roles in titles including Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

Curry never treated voice acting as lesser work.

He performed those characters with the same commitment he brought to the screen.

Tim Curry Was A Major Stage Performer Before Hollywood

It would be easy to look at Curry’s filmography and forget that his foundation was theater.

Born in England on April 19, 1946, Curry studied at the University of Birmingham before beginning his professional career on stage.

One of his earliest major opportunities came with the London production of Hair in 1968.

Then came The Rocky Horror Show.

His theater career ultimately extended far beyond Frank-N-Furter.

Curry earned three Tony Award nominations during his career and also received two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, establishing himself as considerably more than the cult-film actor casual audiences sometimes assumed him to be.

He could sing.

He could command a stage.

He could play comedy.

He could play drama.

And he possessed the kind of presence that made subtlety optional rather than necessary.

A 2012 Stroke Changed Curry’s Life

Curry’s life changed dramatically after he suffered a major stroke in 2012.

The stroke affected his mobility and left him using a wheelchair.

For a performer whose career had been built partly around such extraordinary physical presence, it was an enormous adjustment.

But Curry did not completely disappear from performing.

Voice acting became particularly important during the years that followed, allowing him to continue working even as his physical circumstances changed.

He also occasionally appeared publicly at conventions and special events, where the affection audiences still had for him was impossible to miss.

In 2016, Curry returned to the world that made him famous when Fox produced The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.

He didn’t attempt to recreate Frank-N-Furter.

Instead, Curry appeared as the Criminologist, allowing the original star to become part of a new interpretation of the story that had followed him for more than four decades.

There Was Nobody Quite Like Tim Curry

That may ultimately be Curry’s greatest legacy.

You couldn’t really replace him.

Plenty of actors can play villains.

Plenty can play comedy.

Plenty can sing.

Plenty can disappear underneath elaborate makeup.

Curry could do all of those things while remaining unmistakably himself.

He possessed an unusual combination of sophistication and complete willingness to be ridiculous.

He could deliver an absurd line with Shakespearean seriousness and somehow make both the joke and the character better.

He never seemed embarrassed by the material.

That matters when your filmography includes mad scientists, demonic embodiments of Darkness, murderous clowns, pirates, butlers and Muppets.

His Movies Became Bigger After They Left Theaters

There is also something wonderfully appropriate about the number of Curry movies that refused to disappear.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show wasn’t initially a conventional blockbuster.

Neither was Clue.

Both became enormously beloved afterward.

They were passed from one generation to another through midnight screenings, VHS tapes, cable television, DVDs, streaming and eventually endless clips circulating online.

Curry’s performances survived every format change.

Someone discovering Clue for the first time today can laugh at Wadsworth just as easily as someone watching it four decades ago.

Someone encountering Curry’s Pennywise can still understand why children watching television in 1990 suddenly became uncomfortable around storm drains.

And somewhere tonight, another audience will inevitably gather to do the Time Warp again.

Tim Curry Leaves Behind Characters That Will Outlive All Of Us

Celebrity deaths often produce the same phrase: “They will be missed.”

With Tim Curry, it feels almost inadequate.

Because Curry isn’t really going anywhere.

Frank-N-Furter will still walk down that elevator.

Wadsworth will still sprint through Hill House explaining who killed whom.

Pennywise will still be waiting in the sewer.

Darkness will still emerge from the shadows.

Long John Silver will still command his Muppet-filled ship.

And Mr. Hector will still make that face every Christmas when another family inevitably puts on Home Alone 2.

That’s the strange comfort contained within a career like his.

Tim Curry died at 80.

But the characters he created stopped aging a long time ago.