Tim Curry, who soared to fame in the ‘70s as the flamboyant star of the campy horror movie stage spoof “The Rocky Horror Show” and its screen version “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles, Variety has confirmed. A cause of death was not immediately available, though Curry had suffered from several health issues since having a severe stroke in 2012. Though the versatile English actor, singer and voice performer garnered a Daytime Emmy Award and Tony and Olivier Awards nods for a variety of other roles, Curry’s career was defined by his wicked Dr.
Furter, the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” in composer-playwright-actor Richard O’Brien’s left-of-center musical comedy. He originated the character on stage in London for director Jim Sharman, brought it to theaters in Los Angeles and New York, and took it to the screen in Sharman’s 1975 film, which flopped initially but found new life as a cult movie. Like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, whose respective turns as Victor Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula in the ‘30s Universal horror films — which inspired “Rocky Horror” — cemented their movie personas, Curry’s profile was forever etched by his performance as the outrageous, bustier-clad mad scientist.
He added, prophetically, “I was hesitant in that, if it worked, it might be a difficult image to shake off. But really, I’ve often thought that it wasn’t worth doing unless you took a risk.” At the height of the “Rocky Horror” boom of the late ‘70s, Curry joined A&M Records’ roster, cutting three rock albums, including “Fearless” (No. 53, 1979) and “Simplicity” (No. 112, 1981). Though Curry would forever be the face that launched a thousand Time Warp dances at midnight “Rocky Horror” screenings around the country, he proved to be far more than a one-trick pony over the course of a career that spanned more than half a century.
In 1968, he began his career as a stage actor with an appearance in the London company of “Hair,” the “American tribal love rock musical.” Into the mid-‘70s, he distinguished himself in appearances at the Royal Court Theatre, the Citizens Theatre, and in other companies, playing Shakespeare, Brecht, Buchner and Stoppard, before “Rocky Horror” launched him to stardom. He collected kudos for his work on the boards: His 1981 work as Mozart in the New York production of “Amadeus” snagged a Tony nomination, while his performance as the Pirate King in the Drury Lane’s 1982 staging of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” secured a Laurence Olivier Award nod. Later, he returned behind the footlights as the swashbuckling, booze-swilling actor Alan Swann in the Broadway musical version of “My Favorite Year,” and as King Arthur in the New York and London productions of “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” the musical rendering (directed by Mike Nichols) of the English comedy troupe’s Arthurian comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Despite a prolific career in film and TV — and possibly because his Frank N.
Furter was so indelibly lodged in the public consciousness — Curry never attained the kind of screen stardom commensurate with his gifts. He enjoyed strong roles as con man Rooster Harrigan in John Huston’s musical “Annie” (1982) and (beneath a layer of elaborate makeup that took five hours to apply) the arch-villain Darkness in Ridley Scott’s fantasy “Legend” (1985). He also appeared (drolly, as the butler Wadsworth) in the screen adaptation of the mystery board game “Clue,” which also attained cult status after an initial flop.
His TV work of the period included a starring role as villain Bill Sikes in the 1982 TV movie of “Oliver Twist” and a 1989 record industry arc on the CBS crime show “Wiseguy.” Though Curry occasionally took straight dramatic roles in features like “The Hunt for Red October” (1990) and “The Three Musketeers” (1993), his métier proved to be comedy. He notably appeared as Plaza Hotel concierge Mr. Hector in “Home Alone 2” (1992), heavy Jigsaw in the “Lethal Weapon” spoof “Loaded Weapon 1” (1993), Long John Silver in “Muppet Treasure Island” (1996), Russian terrorist Major Vladakov in the film version of “McHale’s Navy” (1997) and Gomez Addams in the direct-to-video “Addams Family Reunion.” On TV, he captured a Daytime Emmy voicing Captain Hook on the 1990-91 Fox animated series “Peter Pan and the Pirates,” and made a memorable Pennywise the Clown in the first, miniseries version of Stephen King’s horror novel “IT” (1990).
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