Tim Curry

Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London, 1974 Los Angeles, and 1975 Broadway musical stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show.
Curry's other stage work includes various roles in the original West End production of Hair, Tristan Tzara in the 1975 West End and Broadway productions of Travesties, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1980 Broadway production of Amadeus, The Pirate King in the 1982 West End production of The Pirates of Penzance, and King Arthur in Broadway and West End productions of Spamalot from 2005 to 2007. His theatre accolades include three Tony Award nominations and two Laurence Olivier Award nominations.
Curry received further acclaim for his film and television roles, including Rooster Hannigan in the film adaptation of Annie (1982), Darkness in Legend (1985), Wadsworth in Clue (1985), Pennywise in the miniseries It (1990), the Concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996). His other notable film appearances include The Shout (1978), Times Square (1980), The Worst Witch (1986), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Three Musketeers (1993), Congo (1995), Charlie's Angels (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Kinsey (2004).
Curry is also a prolific voice actor, with roles in animation including his Emmy Award-winning performance as Captain Hook on Peter Pan & the Pirates (1990–1991), Hexxus in the film FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), King Chicken in Duckman (1994–1997), Sir Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004), and Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012–2014).
As a singer, Curry has released three rock-focused studio albums: Read My Lips (1978), Fearless (1979), and Simplicity (1981).
Timothy James Curry was born on 19 April 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, the son of school secretary Patricia and Royal Navy chaplain James Curry. His father died of pneumonia in 1958, when Curry was 12 years old. His elder sister, Judith, was a concert pianist who died of a brain tumour in 2001. Curry spent most of his childhood in Plymouth. After his father's death, Curry and his family moved to South London, where he attended boarding school before attending Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset. Curry developed into a talented boy soprano. Deciding to concentrate on acting, he graduated from the University of Birmingham with a combined BA in English and drama in 1968.
Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he met Richard O'Brien, who went on to write Curry's role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (1973). Curry recalled his first encounter with the project:
Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, and later, with an American accent. In March 2005, in an interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air, he explained that he decided to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter with an English accent after listening to an English woman say, "Do you have a house in town or a house in the country," and decided, "Yes, [Dr. Frank-N-Furter] should sound like the Queen."
Curry originally thought the character was merely a laboratory doctor dressed in a white lab coat. However, at the suggestion of director Sharman, the character evolved into the diabolical mad scientist and transvestite with an upper-class Belgravia accent. An immediate hit, a reviewer at the premiere in London in June 1973 wrote Curry gives a "garishly Bowiesque performance as the ambisextrous doctor." This change carried over to the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which made Curry a household name and gave him a cult following. Curry continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles, and New York City until 1975.
In an interview with NPR, Curry called Rocky Horror a "rite of passage", and added that the film is "a guaranteed weekend party to which you can go with or without a date and probably find one if you don't have one, and it's also a chance for people to try on a few roles for size, you know? Figure out, help them maybe figure out their own sexuality".
In 2016, Curry played The Criminologist in the television film remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Shortly after the end of Rocky Horror's run on Broadway, Curry returned to the stage with Tom Stoppard's Travesties, which ran in London and New York from 1975 to 1976. Travesties was a Broadway hit. It won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play), and Curry's performance as the famous dadaist Tristan Tzara received good reviews.
In 1980, Curry formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Curry was nominated for his first Tony Award (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for this role but lost out to his co-star Ian McKellen, who played Antonio Salieri. In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in the Drury Lane production of Joe Papp's version of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole and Pamela Stephenson, earning enthusiastic reviews.
In the mid-1980s, Curry performed in The Rivals and in several plays with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including The Threepenny Opera, Dalliance and Love For Love. From 1987 to 1988, he did the national tour of Me and My Girl in the lead role of Bill Snibson, a role originated on Broadway by Robert Lindsay. In 1989, Curry returned once again to the New York stage in The Art of Success, and in 1992 played Alan Swann in the Broadway version of My Favorite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. In 2001, Curry appeared as Scrooge in a musical version of the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol that played at Madison Square Garden.
In 2004, Curry began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. Directed by Mike Nichols, written by Monty Python member Eric Idle and based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005. It sold more than $1 million worth of tickets in its first 24 hours. His performance brought him a third Tony nomination, again for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Curry reprised this role at the Palace Theatre in London's West End, where Spamalot opened on 16 October 2006. His final performance came on 6 January 2007. Curry was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award, and also won the Theatregoers' Choice Award (getting 39% of the votes cast by over 12,000 theatregoers) as Best Actor in a Musical.
From May to August 2011, Curry was scheduled to portray the Player in a Trevor Nunn stage production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then in London. Curry withdrew from the production on 27 May, citing ill health. From 26 to 29 April 2012, he appeared in Eric Idle's play What About Dick? at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Curry had originally appeared at a script reading for the play back in 2007 when it was still a work in progress.
Curry's career in theatre was honoured on 7 June 2015 at the Actors Fund's 19th annual Tony Awards Viewing Party, where he was awarded an Artistic Achievement Award.
After The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Curry began to appear in many films, acting in supporting roles, such as Robert Graves in the British horror film The Shout (1978), as Johnny LaGuardia in Times Square (1980), as Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan in John Huston's 1982 film version of Annie, and as Jeremy Hancock in the political film The Ploughman's Lunch (1983).
In 1985, Curry starred in the fantasy film Legend as The Lord of Darkness. Director Ridley Scott cast Curry in the film after watching him in Rocky Horror, thinking he was ideal to play the role of Darkness. It took five and a half hours to apply the makeup needed for Darkness onto Curry and at the end of the day, he would spend an hour in a bath in order to liquefy the soluble spirit gum. The same year, Curry appeared in the comedy mystery film Clue as Wadsworth the butler.
After this, Curry began to be cast in more comedy roles throughout the late 1980s and '90s such as Rev. Ray Porter in Pass the Ammo, Dr. Thornton Poole in Oscar (1991), Mr. Hector the suspicious Plaza Hotel concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Jigsaw in Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and as Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. Although he featured in mostly comedies throughout the '90s, Curry did appear in some action films, such as the thriller The Hunt for Red October (1990) as Dr. Yevgeniy Petrov, the 1993 adaptation of The Three Musketeers as Cardinal Richelieu, in the superhero film The Shadow (1994) as Farley Claymore, and as Herkermer Homolka in the action adventure Congo (1995). He also starred in the 1998 direct-to-video film Addams Family Reunion playing the role of Gomez Addams.
In the early 2000s, Curry was cast in the film adaptation of Charlie's Angels (2000) in the role of Roger Corwin, and in the parody film Scary Movie 2 (2001) playing Professor Oldman. Curry went on to play Thurman Rice, a supporting role in the biographical film Kinsey (2004) and portrayed Alexander Monro in the British black comedy Burke & Hare (2010).
In 2024, he had a cameo appearance in the horror film Stream, providing the voice of the mask character "Lockwood".
Curry started his career with small roles in television series, such as Eugene in Napoleon and Love (1974), and guest roles in Armchair Theatre and the BBC's Play for Today including as Glen in Dennis Potter's Schmoedipus (1974). He played William Shakespeare in the John Mortimer-scripted six part mini-series Will Shakespeare (1978). Broadcast on ITV in the UK and distributed internationally by ITC, it traces the bard's life from 1590 until his death. Curry had further roles in British television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including the lead in Stephen Frears' 1975 adaptation of Three Men in a Boat, playing Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (1982), playing aspiring actor-singer Larry Gormley in Blue Money (1985), and starring as the Grand Wizard in the children's Halloween film The Worst Witch (1986).
He appeared in the "Dead Dog Records" storyline of the television series crime drama Wiseguy (1989), as Winston Newquay and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for portraying all three members of a deranged family in Tales from the Crypt (1993). He also had recurring roles on the short-lived science fiction television series Earth 2 (1994) and the sitcom Rude Awakening (1999–2000). Although Curry has appeared in numerous television series throughout his career, he has only had lead roles in two live-action series: Over the Top (1997), a sitcom that he also produced, and the revival series of Family Affair (2002–2003). Both were cancelled after one season. He returned to working on British television in the late 2000s, with the miniseries adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008), a guest appearance on the long-running Agatha Christie's Poirot (2008) and the miniseries Return to Cranford (2009). His final episodic television role was in 2010 on Criminal Minds, portraying unsub Billy Flynn in two episodes.
One of Curry's best known television roles is as Pennywise the Clown in the horror miniseries Stephen King's It (1990). Aside from one Fangoria interview in 1990, Curry never publicly acknowledged his involvement in It until an interview with Moviefone in 2015, where he called the role of Pennywise "a wonderful part".
Curry has appeared in many animated television series and films, starting with the performance of the Serpent The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (1988). Curry won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance as Captain Hook in the Fox animated series Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990–1991). His longest-running animated role was as Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004), which ran for five seasons on Nickelodeon. Curry became the voice of Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious in Star Wars: The Clone Wars upon the death of Ian Abercrombie. Other notable animated television roles include MAL in Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1991–1996), Zimbo in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (1994–1997), King Chicken in Duckman (1994–1997), Dr. Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles (1995–1996), Slagar in Redwall (2000–2001), Professor Finbarr Calamitous in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2003–2005), G. Gordon Godfrey in Young Justice (2012–2013), and The Sorcerer in Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja (2012–2014). Most recently on television, he voiced Auntie Whispers on the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy-winning miniseries Over the Garden Wall (2014).
Curry has also done voice acting in a number of animated films, most notably FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Don Bluth's The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) for which he received an Annie Award nomination, Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost (1998), the first Barbie film Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001), reprising his role of Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002) and Rugrats Go Wild (2003), the English dub of Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns (2005) and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006). His video game credits include the titular character in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993) and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999), Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend (2009), and the first game in the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: Origins (2009). Curry's performance as Premier Anatoly Cherdenko in live-action cut scenes in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008), have gone viral as a meme.
Curry's audiobook work includes his Grammy-nominated narraton of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan in Scarlet, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and the Abhorsen trilogy. Curry has done voice over for various advertisements for products and companies such as Smirnoff, Cravendale and Paramount Network.
Aside from his performances on various soundtrack records, Curry has had some success as a solo musical artist. Curry received classical vocal training as a boy. He has mentioned that his musical influences included jazz vocalists such as Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong and he idolised the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as a teenager. In 1978, A&M Records released Curry's debut solo album Read My Lips. The album featured an eclectic range of songs (mostly covers) performed in diverse genres. Highlights of the album are a reggae version of the Beatles' song "I Will", a rendition of "Wake Nicodemus" featuring the Pipes and Drums of the 48th Highlanders of Canada, and a bar-room ballad, "Alan", composed by Canadian singer-songwriter Tony Kosinec. In 1979 he scored a minor hit single with "I Do the Rock". The following year, Curry released his second and most successful album Fearless. The LP was more rock-oriented than Read My Lips and mostly featured original songs rather than cover versions. The album included Curry's only US Billboard Hot 100 charting song: "I Do the Rock".
Curry's third and final album, Simplicity, was released in 1981, again by A&M Records. This record, which did not sell as well as the previous offerings, combined both original songs and cover versions. Still, it was the only Curry recording to hit the charts in Canada, reaching No. 45 on the album chart. The writing, production, and musician roster for Curry's solo albums included an impressive list of collaborators, including Bob Ezrin, Dick Wagner, and David Sanborn.
In 1989, A&M released The Best of Tim Curry on CD and cassette, featuring songs from his albums (including a live version of "Alan") and a previously unreleased song, a live cover version of Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate". Curry toured North America and some European countries with his band between 1978 and 1980. In 1990, Curry performed as the Prosecutor in Roger Waters' production of The Wall – Live in Berlin. Although Curry's first album was released in 1978, he had previously recorded a nine-track album for Lou Adler's Ode Records in 1976. However, the album remained unreleased in its entirety until February 2010, when it was made available as a legal download entitled ...From the Vaults (though four tracks from these sessions had been released on a 1990 Rocky Horror box set). The album, produced by Adler, included Curry's rendition of The Supremes' hit "Baby Love".
A keen horticulturalist, Curry has developed and restored gardens across many of his past residences and some other residences in Los Angeles. On where his interest in gardening came from, he commented: "I think if you're English, a trowel appears in your hand when you're 30 like a prosthetic device". He told the UK edition of House & Garden magazine about designing Freddie Mercury's garden: "Freddie came back from a tour and said, 'The garden, dear, it's dead.' I said, 'What? Did you water it?' And Freddie said, 'Water it, dear?'"
Curry has used a wheelchair since having a major stroke in July 2012. As a result, he has shifted his work mostly to voice acting, although he has continued to perform as a singer and make appearances at fan conventions.
In October 2020, Curry reprised his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a live table reading of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in support of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to raise funds for Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
Curry is working on a memoir titled Vagabond, scheduled to be released on October 7, 2025 by Grand Central Publishing | Hachette Book Group. When asked by a fan about the origin of the title, Curry responded, "It comes from in the 17th and 18th centuries actors were regarded as vagabonds, and sort of criminals - and because I’ve always moved around so much."
Albums
Soundtracks and cast recordings
Others