Tim Curry, the charismatic star of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', dies

BarcelonaBritish actor Tim Curry died this Wednesday at the age of 80 in Los Angeles, as reported by TMZ. His career is marked by two iconic characters: Doctor Frank-N-Furter, the protagonist of the cult musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the clown Pennywise in the horror miniseries It, the adaptation of Stephen King's novel.

Curry, who suffered a stroke in 2021, began his career in London's West End, as part of the cast of Hair. In 1973 he joined the cast of a small musical that would change his life, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which started in a London theatre with only 63 seats and is a sexual and glam rock parodyof Frankenstein. Curry was its main protagonist: the extravagant Doctor Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite scientist who wanted to create the perfect man, muscular and handsome. His extravagance was completed with a marked upper-class English accent. After the theatrical success, in 1975 came the film adaptation, which Curry also starred in. The cast included a very young Susan Sarandon. The film, with its message of sexual liberation, became a cult film and is still screened today with audiences participating by singing the songs and reciting the dialogues.

In an interview with NPR, Curry recalled the musical's social impact. "It's an opportunity for people to try different roles and perhaps discover their own sexuality. Undoubtedly, I've received very interesting and emotional messages from people who told me, 'Thank you for helping me discover who I was,' and that's very rewarding," he said.

Throughout his career, he was able to exploit his darker side, often accentuated by his gaze. In this regard, one of his most notable roles is that of the clown Pennywise, whom he played in the television version of It. In The Three Musketeers (1993), he was also the villain of the story, playing Cardinal Richelieu. Endowed with great comedic talent, he shone in Home Alone 2, where he was the hotel concierge who tried to make life impossible for the child Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin). In a 2011 interview, he admitted that villain roles were his favorite. "I love these characters, they are the best written," he asserted. His filmography includes other films such as Charlie's Angels, Legend, and Annie.

Despite his long film career, he received his greatest professional recognition for his stage performances. He was nominated for a Tony, Broadway's most prestigious award, three times. The first time was in 1981 for the role of Mozart in Amadeus, the play that tells the story of the composer's relationship with his main rival, Salieri. In 1993 he was nominated for My Favorite Year and in 2005 for Spamalot.

Curry was quite private about his personal life. He never married or had children, and in his memoirs, titled Vagabond, he wrote that his romantic or sexual relationships were nobody's business.