Tim Curry, 1946 – 2026

Delightfully naughty British actor Tim Curry, 80, died after a long illness on Aug. 25. Curry is best known as Dr. Frank N. Furter in the stage and movie versions of The Rocky Horror Show, but I have never been much of a fan of either, so I prefer his work in such films as Clue, Annie, The Hunt for Red October, and TV’s It (though I prefer the Elinor Glyn version). Curry started his career onstage, on the West End and Broadway (in The Pirates of Penzance, Spamalot, Amadeus, My Favorite Year, Travesties, The Rivals, The Threepenny Opera). He worked extensively on TV, both in the UK and US, but of course Rocky Horror will figure in the headlines of his obits. “It is parody but I play it and think of it as a kind of grisly reality,” Curry said of Frank-N-Furter. “A variation on Frankenstein, is obsessed with image and the way that things look, but I see him and play him as a grisly, real freak. Certainly my agents were worried that it would kind of ruin my career and, of course, it hasn't. For me it was, I think, the most joyous time of my life. You know, I was still very young, it took me to Hollywood and to Broadway and into a kind of very peculiar immortality, and I'm very grateful for that.”

“The Zucchini Song!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GEYTHPGCsg&list=RD3GEYTHPGCsg&start_radio=1