T im Curry died Tuesday night. He was 80, and he'd been living with serious health issues for more than a decade, but the news still landed hard for a lot of people who grew up on his stuff.
TMZ broke it first. Police showed up at his LA home around 11:23 p.m. Tuesday — nothing that points to foul play, according to law enforcement sources. His manager, Marcia Hurwitz, put out a statement Wednesday confirming the death. It wasn't the usual career-recap statement, either. She talked about his mind, his temperament, said his curiosity and his generosity stayed with him right up to the end. No cause of death yet. A few outlets, Newsweek among them, said they'd reached out to the LA County Medical Examiner's office and hadn't heard back.
If you're under 40 you probably know him as one of two things. Frank-N-Furter, the corseted, fishnet-clad alien scientist from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," or Pennywise, the clown that ruined storm drains for an entire generation of kids who watched the 1990 miniseries version of "It" way too young. Both are enormous roles. Neither one was really where his career started.
Curry was born April 19, 1946, in England, went to the University of Birmingham, and got his first real break by more or less lying his way into it. He talked his way into an audition for the original 1968 London production of "Hair" by claiming he had professional experience and an Equity card he didn't actually have. The producers liked him enough to sponsor the card for real afterward. That's the story anyway, and he told it himself more than once.
From there it's three Tony nominations, two Olivier nominations, Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan, a run as King Arthur in "Spamalot" on Broadway starting in 2005 that he later took to the West End. He'd actually played Frank-N-Furter on stage years before the movie, in the original London and LA productions of "The Rocky Horror Show." The film came later and almost didn't matter at first critics mostly ignored it in 1975. It found its audience at midnight screenings instead, where it turned into something closer to a ritual than a movie people just watched
And then he just kept going in every direction at once. Wadsworth the butler in "Clue." Rooster in "Annie." The uptight Plaza Hotel manager who gets tangled up with Kevin McCallister in "Home Alone 2." Voice work everywhere Nigel Thornberry on "The Wild Thornberrys," the villain Hexxus in "FernGully," a pile of Scooby-Doo projects, audiobooks, video games. Somebody once asked him why he kept chasing weird, difficult characters instead of easier ones. His answer, more or less: he liked risky parts, the ones audiences wouldn't automatically like.
Then 2012 happened. Curry had a massive stroke, and it hit during a massage of all things he said later he felt totally fine, but the masseur noticed something was wrong and called 911. Surgeons went in and removed two blood clots from his brain. He lived, but he lost the use of his legs and used a wheelchair from then on. His speech was affected too.
He kept working anyway, mostly through voice roles, and he'd show up at fan conventions here and there. In 2015 he got a lifetime achievement award at the Actors Fund's Tony Awards viewing party. Last year he put out a memoir, "Vagabond." His last actual screen credit was a small role in 2024's "Stream." The last time he appeared in public was in September, at a 50th anniversary event for "Rocky Horror" which is about as good a place as any to take your last bow, honestly.
Tributes started rolling in fast once word got out Wednesday. Carol Burnett, who played Miss Hannigan opposite his Rooster in "Annie," said nobody played a lovable villain better than he did and called him a dear friend. Michael McKean, his "Clue" costar, said his last conversation with Curry was about life and love and laughter. Rob Schneider the Plaza Hotel guy from "Home Alone 2" said Curry could act more with one raised eyebrow than most people manage with their whole body. Christopher Lloyd just posted a photo of him in character as Wadsworth with a heart emoji, no caption needed apparently. Luke Evans thanked him for inspiring performers to be braver than they thought they could be. Rosie O'Donnell's tribute was two words: sweetest man.
People also noticed something else. Curry died the same day as Dolly Parton both of them 80, both of them about as far apart culturally as two entertainers can get. It's a strange coincidence, but it's the kind that sticks, and a lot of people online were saying some version of the same thing: two completely different giants gone within hours of each other.
Tim Curry died Tuesday night at his home in Los Angeles at age 80. Police responded to the house but say there's nothing suspicious about it, and his manager confirmed the death Wednesday. Curry had been dealing with serious health problems since a stroke in 2012 left him unable to walk. He's best known for Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and Pennywise in "It," but the résumé goes a lot deeper than that, and so do the tributes now pouring in from Carol Burnett, Michael McKean, Rob Schneider and others.
