Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London and 1974 Los Angeles musical stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show.
Timothy James Curry was born on 19 April 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, the son of school secretary Patricia (died June 1999) 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 (treble). 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 next full-time role, that of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (1973). Curry recalled his first encounter with the project:
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 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".
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 1981, 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 The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole, earning enthusiastic reviews.
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. In August 1986, he auditioned for the Judge Doom role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. However, Curry was rejected due to a too-frightening performance. The role went to Christopher Lloyd, his co-star in Clue.
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. In 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 and followed by Jim Dale. In 1989–90, Curry returned once again to the New York stage in The Art of Success, and in 1993 played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical 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 the musical version of A Christmas Carol that played at Madison Square Garden.
One of Curry's best-known television roles (and best-known roles overall) is as Pennywise the Clown in the 1990 horror miniseries Stephen King's It. 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", giving his blessing to successor Will Poulter; Poulter was set to play the character in the reboot, although ultimately dropped out. Bill Skarsgård replaced Poulter, and while being interviewed at Fan Expo Canada, Curry gave his approval, saying "I like [Bill] Skarsgård. I think he's very clever. It'll be interesting to see what sort of clown face he puts on. because it's not an obvious clown face at all.[..] So I'm fascinated to see it."
In 2004, Curry began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. 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 as the Best Actor in a Musical for the role, and also won the Theatregoers' Choice Award (getting 39% of the votes cast by over 12,000 theatregoers) as Best Actor in a Musical.
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."
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 in the play back in 2007 when it was still a work in progress.
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. He has never married and has no children.
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.
In 2016, Curry played The Criminologist in the television film remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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.