Tim Curry, star of ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and ‘Clue,’ dead at 80

CNN

By Todd Leopold, Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Tim Curry, the English actor who became a massively popular cult figure thanks to his performances in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Clue” and the TV miniseries “It,” has died. He was 80.

Curry “passed away peacefully at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles” on Tuesday, according to a statement shared by publicist Sean Katz on behalf of Curry’s longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz.

“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,” the statement read.

Police responded to a death investigation for a male in his 80s at an address in Los Angeles at 11:20pm Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The Los Angeles Fire Department also confirmed that emergency personnel attended a medical event at the same address Tuesday night at 10:42pm for an adult male who was pronounced dead.

An immediate cause of death was unclear. In 2012, Curry suffered a major stroke and had been dealing with health problems in the years since.

A classic character actor, Curry often portrayed supercilious Brits, crafty villains (he played the devil more than once) and befuddled sidekicks.

He demanded attention as soon as he walked on screen as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s “Rocky Horror,” boldly strolling past rows of acolytes and ripping off a robe to reveal a corset and stockings. His Lord of Darkness, from 1985’s fantasy film “Legend,” was equipped with giant horns and a tomato-red face, but it was Curry’s casual delivery, dripping with menace, that elevated the role to more than a caricature.

Curry had a working actor’s distance — and an Englishman’s understatement — toward the parts he played. Describing Pennywise, the demonic clown he played in 1990’s “It,” perhaps Stephen King’s most frightening creation, he told the magazine Fangoria, “Basically, he’s completely irredeemable; he’s the kind of chap that’s entirely without charm.”

As for Frank N. Furter, the “sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transsylvania,” Curry was equally detached, remembering the beloved role with “bemused tolerance.”

He told NPR’s “Fresh Air” in 2005 that the charismatic role was a challenge to overcome. Frank N. Furter “was so out there, so kind of outrageous, that I was a very quiet boy for a while, just to make sure that people got it — that that wasn’t necessarily who I was,” he said.

Beginnings and making it big

Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946, in Grappenhall, England, about 30 miles inland from Liverpool. His father was a chaplain in the Royal Navy, and Curry grew up in cities around the world before his family settled in Plymouth, on England’s south coast, after his father suffered a stroke. When he was 12, his father died, an event that left him shaken.

It was a “huge turning point in my life,” he told “The View” in 1997. “You’re suddenly two years older than all the other kids.”

His family moved to London, and Curry decided to become an actor, receiving a college degree in theater in 1968. His first professional role was in a production of “Hair.”

After a variety of other roles — he remembers playing several of them, not all successfully, in a 60-seat theater while scraping by — he was cast by writer Richard O’Brien in “Rocky Horror Show” in 1973. As befitting the parody of ‘50s horror and science-fiction movies, Curry originally was going to play Frank N. Furter as a mad scientist with a German accent.

He changed his mind one day when riding the bus and hearing a woman with an upper-class accent. He ended up basing the waggish voice of Frank N. Furter on his mother — and Queen Elizabeth. The costumes, too, evolved, with the corset coming from a Jean Genet piece he’d appeared in previously.

The production became a huge hit in its London and Los Angeles incarnations, though it flopped on Broadway. By then, however, the movie version had been released.

“Rocky Horror’s” sleeper success changed Curry’s life. He remembered relaxing by a pool in Hollywood and wondering how to cope with fame.

“I was hesitant that, if it worked, it might be a difficult image to shake off,” he said in 1975.

But, for a time, the success was limited. Los Angeles loved the movie, but the rest of the country didn’t, and it threatened to sink without a trace until it was revived as a midnight movie at New York’s Waverly Theater. The nation was soon full of sold-out movie theaters running “Rocky Horror” at midnight, filled by theatergoers in full costume who yelled responses to the dialogue and threw toast at the screen. Weekly screenings continue to take place in many cities throughout the world.

In the four decades since, it’s never gone away. The musical is currently running on Broadway.

Luke Evans, the Welsh actor nominated for a Tony Award this year for his portrayal of Frank-N-Furter in the current Broadway production of “Rocky Horror,” shared a letter on Instagram that he wrote to Curry several weeks ago, prior to leaving the production. In it, he thanked Curry for his “fearless performance” in the original production, which he said had inspired generations of actors.

“There will only be one Tim Curry,” Evans wrote. “All the rest of us will just have to do our best to emulate some of the magic of that role that I’ve just spent 7 months playing.”

Even Princess Diana was a fan of the original and asked to meet Curry on one occasion. Curry asked whether she’d seen the film.

“Oh, yes. It quite completed my education,” she told him.

Beyond Rocky Horror

Curry, however, was done with Frank. Aside from an interview with a college TV station in 1975, he barely discussed the film for more than two decades.

Asked at the time whether he’d be interested in a sequel, he demurred. “Not with me in it,” he said. (There was sort of a sequel, “Shock Treatment,” in 1981, and true to his word, Curry did not take part.)

In the ensuing decades, Curry was a formidable performer, both on stage and on screen. After “Rocky’s” Broadway debacle, he went right back on stage, starring in Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties” both in London and New York. He released some pop albums, having a minor hit with “I Do the Rock” in 1979.

And he took significant screen roles in some popular works, including as Wadsworth the butler in 1985’s “Clue,” which became another cult classic; “Legend,” Ridley Scott’s dark fantasy starring Tom Cruise; “It,” considered one of the best Stephen King adaptations; and a story arc of the influential, if low-rated, series “Wiseguy.”

His ability to play villains earned him a number of fans, including Meredith Vieira, who interviewed him on “The View” in 1997.

“If you were the devil, I would pay to go to hell,” she told him.

Curry also engaged in voice work. His performance reading Lemony Snicket’s novels “A Series of Unfortunate Events” earned him a Grammy nomination, and he supplied the voice of Darth Sidious in the TV series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

But the stage continued to beckon, including parts in “My Favorite Year” and “A Christmas Carol.” In 2005, Curry took on the plum role of King Arthur in “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” based on “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” The musical was a mammoth success, earning 14 Tony nominations and winning best musical. Curry and costar Hank Azaria were nominated for best actor in a musical, but lost.

Perhaps, if Curry had played a villain in the musical, he would have had a better chance. He embraced the typecasting of British actors — “Eric Idle and I have this greeting. We shake hands and say, ‘butlers and villains,’” he told Vieira — and reveled in the roles.

“The fact is that the bad guys are always much better-written than the good guys, and they’re kind of irresistible to play, because they’re so much more fun,” he said in the “View” interview.

Carol Burnett, Curry’s costar in the 1982 film adaptation of “Annie,” described him in an Instagram tribute as a dear friend whom she was blessed to know. “Nobody could play lovable villains better than he could,” Burnett wrote.

Wry wit, til the end

Curry had been in poor health in recent years. The actor dropped out of a production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 2011 because of illness. In 2012, he suffered a major stroke. He accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Actors Fund in 2015, showing up to the ceremony in a wheelchair, his once-chipper voice diffused by a more halting cadence.

Nevertheless, he still had his sense of humor, which was on full display when he made a surprise appearance at a 50th anniversary screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” last year at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, where love from an adoring, multigenerational audience came in the form of several standing ovations.

Curry told the crowd: “I’d like to tell you that I haven’t been legless before tonight, but it wouldn’t be true. I’m, unfortunately, currently sitting in a wheelchair, so get over it!”

He also teased his “Rocky Horror” costar Barry Bostwick, who introduced him just ahead of the screening, saying, “When Barry was being introduced, he was introduced as ‘OG,’ and I’m assuming that means ‘old geezer.’”

Ahead of the screening, Bostwick reminisced about arriving on the set of the 1975 movie, and being immediately disarmed by Curry’s warmth.

“When we got off the plane, you hugged us and you said, ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome to your world’ – and we’ve been there for 50 years,” Bostwick said. “Thank you, Tim. We love you.”

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CNN’s David Mack, Zoe Sottile and Dan Heching contributed to this report.