When David Bowie died, I was distraught. When Lynch died, I was devastated. Tim Curry has passed away at age 80, and it’s another one of those losses that feels deeply personal… though that may just be because I can see his face or hear his voice when I think my way back through so many childhood memories. He was the king of genre. He was in everything. There was no role he couldn’t take, remix, and turn into something that can only be described as iconic. And that even includes his voiceover work as Nigel Thornberry in the early 2000s Nickelodeon show The Wild Thornberrys – yes, that delightfully nasally voice paired with those ridiculous buck teeth made for one of the best animated TV dads of all time.
You might only know Curry as Dr. Frankenfurter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and you know what? That’s okay. It was his first-ever film credit, though he had played the role multiple times before in the original stage show version. The world met Tim Curry in tall white heels, a garter, fishnets, with a painted-up face, singing in a sultry tone accompanied by some rather sexy sax – and whether you fainted on the spot like Susan Sarandon’s Janet, or giggled profusely like Columbia and Magenta, he was here to stay.
Before he took on some more family-friendly roles, like the aforementioned Thornberrys or Long John Silver in The Muppets Treasure Island, he solidified himself as a true horror icon by starring as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the first-ever live-action adaptation of Stephen King’s It. A lot of nineties kids will tell you that Curry’s take on the evil clown (who is actually a malevolent being from another planet) gave them nightmares on end, and we’re not just talking about those razor-sharp teeth – Curry pulled that laugh straight from hell, and I can hear it when I’m alone in my apartment doing the dishes, or trying so desperately to fall asleep.
A performance that registers even scarier than Curry’s tenure as Pennywise? His portrayal of Rooster Hannigan in the 1982 musical adaptation of Annie. It’s the scene towards the end of the movie when little orphan Annie manages to escape from the car, only to be chased down by Rooster with intent to kill. Despite the former Mrs. Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett) pleading with her brother that she’s just a baby, he goes after her anyway. It broke my six-year-old brain going from that movie straight to seeing him as the delightfully macabre and ever-suave Gomez Addams in Addams Family Reunion. There was no such thing as “typecasting” when it came to Tim Curry. He could do it all, and he did.
Something that has always stuck with me is the Rocky Horror number “Don’t Dream It, Be It,” which Curry sings while floating gently in a pool, a whimsical smile plastered across his face. So many of us weird kids grew up to be queer, spooky adults who are unafraid to be ourselves, and we have Curry to thank for that. In one of his final interviews, the ultra-private queer icon told Entertainment Weekly: “The motto ‘don’t dream it be it’ is not necessarily limited to your sexuality. I think it applies to whatever you dream to be, and that’s a good thing.”
During his long, 80-year life, Curry was, well, everything. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t be, no role he couldn’t elevate, or completely disappear into. There will never be another performer like Tim Curry, and what a gift it was to witness.
The 1990 It miniseries is streaming now on HBO Max. Sadly, The Addams Family Reunion and even The Rocky Horror Picture Show are harder to find (though you can purchase the latter on Amazon Prime). Annie can be streamed on Tubi, with Muppets Treasure Island on Disney Plus, and The Wild Thornberrys on Paramount Plus.