Actor and singer Tim Curry dies at 80

Tim Curry, the actor and singer best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, has died at 80. He died on the night of August 25 at his home in Los Angeles, according to TMZ, after dealing with health issues for more than a decade.

Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946, in Grappenhall, England, the son of a school secretary and a Royal Navy chaplain. He began his career on stage, appearing in productions of Hair and After Haggerty before starring in the original 1973 London stage production of The Rocky Horror Show at the Royal Court Theatre. The 1975 film adaptation followed, and though it drew little attention in US theaters at first, it built a second life as a midnight movie, with Curry's performance as the "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" resonating especially with queer audiences.

Curry went on to build a long career largely defined by villainous and comic roles, including Rooster Hannigan in 1982's Annie, Pennywise the clown in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's It, and a nosy hotel concierge in 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He also lent his voice to characters including Captain Hook in Peter Pan & the Pirates and the villain in the 2009 video game Brütal Legend. Beyond acting, he released three albums between 1978 and 1981 and earned Tony Award nominations for Amadeus, My Favorite Year and Spamalot.

In a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Curry reflected on the risk of taking on Frank-N-Furter decades earlier. "I did think it was risky and indeed it was. But I like risky. I would choose risky over anything," he said. "I wasn't sure that I had the courage to do it, and I did and that was good."

Curry suffered a major stroke in 2012 that left him using a wheelchair for the rest of his life, along with lasting mobility and short-term memory issues. He released a memoir, Vagabond, last fall. He is remembered across theater, film and music as one of the more singular performers of his generation, a legacy built on his willingness to be as strange as the material asked of him.