Tim Curry, who defined 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' has died

Tim Curry dies at 80. He defined 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' Curry will be most remembered for his role as Dr.

Key points

• Tim Curry sings during the opening night curtain call for Monty Python's Spamalot in March 2005 in New York City.
• Tim Curry arrives at the Palm Springs International Film Festival gala in January 2001.
• The 1975 film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show became a global cult phenomenon, notorious for rowdy and raunchy audience participation.
• I remember doing the Time Warp: The 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' turns 50.
• Frank-N-Furter, the tyrannical gender-bending alien scientist in both stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tim Curry, who defined 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show, ' has died. August 26, 202612: 33 PM ET. Heard on All Things Considered.

Tim Curry, who defined 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show, ' has died.

Tim Curry played Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the tyrannical gender-bending alien scientist in both stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Movie Poster Image Art/Moviepix/Getty Images hide caption. Movie Poster Image Art/Moviepix/Getty Images.

Tim Curry died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 80.

With his powerful baritone voice and major expressive eyes, the actor and singer inspired cultlike devotion among fans for portraying irresistible villains. Curry will be most remembered, and is probably most beloved, for his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the tyrannical gender-bending alien scientist in both stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tim Curry in 1974. Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption. Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Tim Curry was born in Cheshire, in northwest England, in 1946. His father, a chaplain in the British navy, died of a stroke when Curry was 12. The loss left him and his sister with their mother, who, he believed, lived with a serious mental illness.

Curry landed his first professional role when he was 22, in the original London production of Hair. There, he met the creator of the original Rocky Horror stage show, Richard O'Brien. This person cast him as the outrageous Frank-N-Furter. Belting out such rock 'n' roll hits as "Sweet Transvestite, " while dressed in platform heels, thigh-high fishnet stockings and a sparkly black corset, Curry's daring performance was a then-rare beacon to the LGBTQ community in a pre-internet age.

For context, the 1975 film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show became a global cult phenomenon, notorious for rowdy and raunchy audience participation. "It's a guaranteed weekend party to which you can go with or without a date and probably find one if you don't have one, " Curry informed WHYY's Fresh Air in 2005. "It's also, I think, a chance for people to. Maybe figure out their own sexuality."

Tim Curry sings during the opening night curtain call for Monty Python's Spamalot in March 2005 in New York City. Evan Agostini/Getty Images hide caption. Evan Agostini/Getty Images.

Curry sang and danced in the 1982 film Annie as the scheming character Rooster. He played the mastermind butler, Wadsworth, in 1985's Clue, and terrified viewers (and young co-stars) as the clown Pennywise in the 1990 TV miniseries It. As Long John Silver, he hammed it up with Miss Piggy in Muppet Treasure Island, from 1996.

Tim Curry arrives at the Palm Springs International Film Festival gala in January 2001. Jason Kirk/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption. Jason Kirk/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Onstage, Curry's roles included King Arthur in the original Broadway and West End productions of Spamalot, Tristan in the original London and Broadway productions of Tom Stoppard's Travesties, and as Mozart in Amadeus in the original Broadway cast.

In 2012, Curry suffered a stroke. It altered his speech and left him unable to walk. But he continued to work as a prolific voice actor. He accumulated more than 100 film, TV and video game credits over the course of his long career.

To the disappointment of fans who adored his portrayal of unapologetic queer joy in Rocky Horror, Curry never made public anything publicly concerning his own love life or sexuality. "I have loved and been loved, " he wrote in his bestselling 2025 memoir Vagabond. "The rest is none of your business."

Just as he wanted, Tim Curry took some secrets to his grave.

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