It’s said celebrity deaths come in threes. We lost Sam Neill last month, and the legendary Dolly Parton yesterday. Now we find out that the universe has also seen fit to deprive us of the glorious presence of Tim Curry, who died at home yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 80. No cause of death has been given, but Curry had been in ill health since 2012, when he suffered a stroke and required brain surgery; he had been confined to a wheelchair ever since.
Curry’s longtime friend and manager, Marcia Hurwitz, confirmed the actor’s passing to Deadline and said Curry had died peacefully. Per the official announcement:
Throughout his life, he refused to be boxed in or confined to others’ expectations. Across five decades, he moved fluidly between comedy, horror, drama, and music, delighting himself and his legion of fans with his countless dynamic personas. … He is, depending on who you ask, the definitive Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the definitive Pennywise, the man who made a butler’s death-scene monologue in Clue an all-time comedic bit, or simply ‘that unforgettable voice’ from a beloved cartoon of someone’s childhood.
Few actors can claim to have left as many distinct fingerprints on pop culture and though he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2012, he continued adding to his achievements as an artist and, most recently, a writer. Though widely known for his inimitable, flamboyant characters and colorful stage performances, his greatest legacies to those who knew him were his curious, expansive mind and generous, gentle heart, both of which remained open and filled with anticipation until his final breath.
As obituaries and fond tributes roll in, we at Ars choose to mark the passing of this extraordinary performer with our choices for Curry’s top 10 most iconic portrayals on stage, in film, and on television.
(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)
10. Palpatine/Darth Sidious, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012–2014)
People sometimes forget that Curry was also a profile voice actor for animation in addition to his many live-action roles, particularly for children’s fare, where his campy silliness played very well. He won an Emmy for voicing Captain Hook in 1990’s Peter Pan and the Pirates, and his work on The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004) was particularly beloved. From 2012–2014, he played a villain, replacing the late Ian Abercrombie as the voice of Palpatine in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
9. Mr. Hector, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Home Alone 2 has become best known for Donald Trump’s cameo appearance giving directions to the lobby, but Curry stole every scene he was in with his portrayal of the stuffy concierge of the Plaza Hotel, Mr. Hector. He tries (and naturally fails) to match wits with Macaulay Culkin’s mischievously inventive Kevin, who has found himself in New York by accident with his father’s wallet and decides to run up a huge tab at the Plaza.
8. King Arthur, Spamalot (2004)
We at Ars are diehard fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Eric Idle loved it so much he wrote a hit Broadway musical based on the film: Spamalot (2004). Curry’s roots were in theater, particularly musicals; his very first stage role was a 1968 production of Hair in London’s West End. He went on to receive three Tony nominations, one for portraying Mozart in Amadeus (1980) and another for playing Alan Swann in My Favorite Year (1992). The third was for his performance as King Arthur in Spamalot, a role he reprised in London in 2006, snagging him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for good measure.
7. The Pirate King, The Pirates of Penzance (1982)
Equally delightful on the theatrical front was Curry’s joyously energetic 1982 performance as the swashbuckling Pirate King in a Drury Lane production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera, The Pirates of Penzance. Clad in the character’s signature tight leather pants, Curry is more than up to the task of navigating the rapid-fire lyrics: “I’ll be true to the song I sing/and live and die a pirate king.” Because, you know, it’s “a glorious thing to be a pirate king.”
6. Roger Corwin, Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Curry was one of those actors who could shine even in decidedly mediocre fare, although I’ll confess to a soft spot for the 2000 film reboot of Charlie’s Angels, which really leaned into its cheesy TV roots without apology—and hence it works. Curry plays billionaire Roger Corwin, head of a communications satellite company that just happens to be a rival to the Angels’ client, software genius Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell, in another standout performance). Curry is largely there for comic relief, swanning in with a bevy of beauties, challenging Bosley (Bill Murray) to a sumo match, and, sadly, getting murdered by the pool, thus depriving us of Curry’s magnetic presence for the rest of the film.
5. Cardinal Richelieu, The Three Musketeers (1993)
Curry may have excelled at comedy, but he also had his share of dramatic chops, and that combination made him an especially delicious villain. The conniving Cardinal Richelieu is the central villain in this 1993 action/comedy adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic 1844 novel. Okay, it’s basically Young Guns in 17th century France and far inferior to both Richard Lester’s marvelous two-part 1974 version and the more serious two-part French versions of 2022 and 2023. But it’s worth it just to watch Curry’s Richelieu ooze his way through the court and scheme against the queen before finally getting a well-deserved comeuppance.
4. Long John Silver, Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
Speaking of singing pirates, Curry clearly fancied these kinds of roles, signing on to play the villainous Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Brian Henson’s musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel. Curry never took himself too seriously as an actor and blended seamlessly with human actors and puppets alike. His cackling laugh and delighted smirk can’t fail to delight as he performs his big musical number: “When you’re a professional pirate/ that’s what the job’s about.”
3. Wadsworth, Clue (1985)
This deliciously farcical film adaptation features an all-star cast. Writer/director Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny) does a great job fleshing out the game’s premise and characters. A group of people is invited to an isolated mansion for a dinner with “Mr. Boddy” (Lee Ving) and are greeted by the butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry). There is Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), and Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren).
The script is packed with bad puns and slapstick scenarios, delivered with impeccable comic timing by the entire cast, but especially Curry’s Wadsworth, who really gets his chance to shine when he frantically sums up three separate solutions to the murders in rapid succession as the film’s climax.
2. Pennywise the Clown, IT (1990)
Sure, we’re huge fans of Bill Skarsgård’s creepy incarnation of Pennywise the shapeshifting killer clown in the films IT and IT Chapter II–so was Curry. But Curry’s sinister, gloating, and occasionally quite giggly 1990 version was the first to bring the character to terrifying life in this Emmy-winning two-part miniseries adaptation of the 1986 Stephen King novel. The role required hours in the makeup chair, but Curry convinced makeup artist Bart Mixon to keep prosthetics to a minimum. “I’m sure he felt all the glue and latex would just get in his way,” Mixon later recalled. “He was right, of course. With those eyes, and that mouth, and his crazy sardonic sense of humor, less turned out to be more in the makeup department.”
1. Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
When The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in 1975, no one could have dreamed that it would become the longest-running theatrical release film in history. Thanks to a killer soundtrack, campy humor, and a devoted cult following, Rocky Horror is still a mainstay of midnight movie culture. It is an amazingly catchy collection of tunes, perfect for singing (and dancing) along to, particularly “The Time Warp.” Curry’s Frank-N-Further makes an unforgettable entrance with “Sweet Transvestite.”
Curry originated the role on stage in London in 1973 for The Rocky Horror Show musical. It was a hit there, but bombed on Broadway, and Curry later described that period as a key formative experience, adding, “I think once you’ve had a really serious failure, nothing can ever be as bad as that again. So you might as well just go for it, because they can’t make you feel any worse than they did before.”
Curry had the last laugh: Frank-N-Furter remains his most beloved role; he was a featured speaker at the American Museum of Motion Pictures’ 50th anniversary event last year. (He even played the Criminologist in the 2016 TV remake.) The current Broadway revival (with Luke Evans as Frank-N-Furter) is a smash, too, and has been nominated for nine Tony Awards. But Curry will always be our one and only Frank-N-Furter.
