British actor and singer Tim Curry, known for his portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in “It,” has died at 80, TMZ and Variety first reported Wednesday.
Curry died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, TMZ reported. A cause of death was not immediately available, though he had years of health issues, including a 2012 stroke that he said last year left him unable to walk.
“I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair, and that’s very limiting. So I won’t be singing and I won’t be dancing very soon,” he said during a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on its 50th anniversary, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Curry, born in Cheshire, England, in 1946, launched his professional acting career in musical theater while performing in the original London production of “Hair” in 1968. There he befriended co-star Richard O’Brien, who went on to write “The Rocky Horror Show” and its cross-dressing mad scientist, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, according to Curry’s website.
“It just started in this tiny theater, you know, and it just took off like a sort of rocket,” he recalled of the show’s success to NPR’s “Fresh Air” in 2005.
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“I think, first of all, they love the movie because it’s daring to pretty much everybody,” he said of the 1975 movie adaptation, which also featured provocative drag costumes and dance, but took far longer to see success. “It was daring at the time ― less daring now. To them, it’s daring.”
Despite initially bombing at the box office, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is today the longest-running theatrical release in history.
With his foot in the door of Hollywood, Curry went on to star in a number of other films and theatrical productions, earning him three Tony nominations ― for “Spamalot,” “My Favorite Year” and “Amadeus” ― and an Emmy nomination for “Tales from the Crypt” in 1994.
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His other most notable and widely beloved roles include his chilling portrayal of Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 horror TV miniseries “It.” He also starred in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” “Clue,” “Muppet Treasure Island” and “Annie.”
Curry also did extensive voiceover work, having voiced the quirky patriarch Nigel Thornberry in Nickelodeon’s “The Wild Thornberrys,” the macho evil penguin Drake in “The Pebble and the Penguin,” and the destructive villain Hexxus in “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.”