Tim Curry Dead at 80
Actor Tim Curry, beloved for his roles in movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died, TMZ reports. He was 80.
Sources told the news outlet that Curry died late Tuesday night at his Los Angeles home. Law enforcement sources told the outlet that police responded to his home at 11:23 p.m. Tuesday and that there is no foul play suspected.
After getting his start in Hollywood in the late 1960s, Curry caught his big break in Rocky Horror, where he played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic. The offbeat British actor joined the original stage production at a tiny upstairs venue at London’s Royal Court Theatre, then stuck with the show as it moved to larger London venues and Broadway, eventually starring with a young Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick in the 1975 Fox movie adaptation.
He also played the terrifying clown Pennywise in the 1990 ABC TV adaptation of Stephen King’s It, with more than 37 million households tuning in. He turned the traditional clown on its head, using a lowy, raspy voice and New York accent.
His other credits include Clue, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Annie, The Hunt for Red October, Muppet Treasure Island, Addams Family Reunion and Scary Movie 2.
Curry suffered a massive stroke in 2012, requiring brain surgery. Last year, upon releasing his memoir Vagabond, he stated he was still unable to walk.
Curry was nominated for three Best Actor Tonys, his first for the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1981’s Amadeus, though he lost to his own co-star Ian McKellen. In 1993 he was nominated for portraying alcoholic actor Alan Swann in the musical My Favorite Year. His third nomination, which came in 2005, came for playing King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot, based on the 1975 movie Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Born in Cheshire, England on April 19, 1946, Curry began his professional acting career in a 1968 West End production of Hair shortly after graduating from University of Birmingham. It was during Hair that he met actor Richard O’Brien, who wrote Rocky Horror. Curry helped him develop the mad scientist that eventually dons a corset and fishnet stockings and speaks “like the queen.”
After moving to Los Angeles for his acting career, he became known for buying and renovating homes, as well as for his love of gardening that was inspired by his father, who died when he was just 12.
In 1985’s Clue, Curry showed off his physical comedy chops playing Wadsworth, the butler who investigates the murder of Mr. Boddy alongside fellow suspects Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White and Professor Plum. In The Hunt for Red October (1990), he played loyal Soviet physician Dr. Petrov. Two years later, he returned to comedy as the nosy concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
He played a repugnant villain fans loved to hat in 1993’s The Three Musketeers — Cardinal Richelieu. He was likewise an antagonist in the 2000 film reboot of Charlie’s Angels.
Other film roles included Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), archvillain Major Vladakov in McHale’s Navy (1997), and Herkermer Homolka in Congo (1995).
On TV, Curry starred as the Bard in the 1978 British miniseries Will Shakespeare and was nominated for an Emmy in 1994 for playing an entire murderous family in the Tales From the Crypt episode “Death of Some Salesmen.” He also starred as the butler Mr. French on a short-lived 2002 reboot of the 1960s sitcom Family Affair.
As a voice actor, he won a Daytime Emmy in 1990 for playing Captain Hook on Fox’s Peter Pan and the Pirates. He voiced the evil spirit Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and Nigel Thornberry on Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberries.
He’s particularly well remembered for a 2004 episode of Monk, where he played detective Adrian Monk’s morbidly obese archenemy Dale “the Whale” Bierderbeck. He also guest-starred as Nigel St. Nigel, a Simon Cowell-type reality show judge, on Psych. He also played a tormented serial killer and rapist driven by childhood trauma in two-episode arc of CBS’ Criminal Minds in 2010.
