The British actor built a nearly six-decade career across theater, movies, television, music and voice acting before suffering a major stroke.
LOS ANGELES — Tim Curry, the British actor whose flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” became one of cinema’s most enduring cult performances, has died at 80, his longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz confirmed.
Curry died at his home in Los Angeles, according to Hurwitz. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Los Angeles police told People that officers responded late Aug. 25 to a call for service involving a man in his 80s at a North Hollywood home and completed a death investigation. Curry had lived with the effects of a major stroke he suffered in 2012, which left him using a wheelchair and sharply reduced his live-action work.
For generations of moviegoers, Curry was inseparable from Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the outrageous scientist at the center of the 1975 musical comedy “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Curry had originated the role in the 1973 London stage production before taking it to the United States and then to film. The movie was not an immediate box-office phenomenon, but midnight screenings transformed it into a long-running audience-participation event and one of the best-known cult films in popular culture.
Curry’s career extended far beyond “Rocky Horror.” He played the fast-talking butler Wadsworth in the 1985 mystery comedy “Clue” and terrified television audiences as Pennywise the clown in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s “It.” His film credits also included “Annie,” “Legend,” “The Three Musketeers,” “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” “Muppet Treasure Island,” “The Shadow,” “Congo” and “Charlie’s Angels.” His gift for combining menace, humor and theatrical excess made him a frequent choice for villains and eccentric characters.
The stage remained a major part of Curry’s career. He earned three Tony Award nominations, including recognition for playing Mozart in “Amadeus,” the leading role in “My Favorite Year” and King Arthur in the Broadway production of “Monty Python’s Spamalot.” Before becoming internationally famous, he had entered professional theater in London with the original West End production of “Hair” and later worked with major British theater companies.
Curry also developed an extensive career behind the microphone. His deep, recognizable voice appeared in animated television programs, films, video games and audiobooks. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for his voice work in “Peter Pan and the Pirates” and contributed to projects including “The Wild Thornberrys,” “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” He was also a singer who released three solo albums during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Born April 19, 1946, in Cheshire, England, Curry grew up in a family that moved frequently because his father served as a Royal Navy chaplain. He later studied drama at the University of Birmingham before heading to London to pursue acting. His ability to move between serious theater, broad comedy, horror, musicals and voice work became a defining feature of his career and helped him avoid being limited to a single type of role despite the enormous popularity of Frank-N-Furter.
Curry suffered a major stroke in 2012 and subsequently used a wheelchair. Although his public appearances became less frequent, he continued voice work and occasionally returned to acting. He appeared in the 2016 television production “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again,” this time playing the criminologist and narrator rather than Frank-N-Furter. He later returned to a live-action film role in the 2024 horror movie “Stream.”
In 2025, Curry made several public appearances connected to the 50th anniversary of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” At a Los Angeles Academy Museum screening, he discussed the lasting effects of his stroke and the physical limitations he continued to face. He also appeared with co-star Barry Bostwick at another anniversary screening, receiving an enthusiastic response from fans who had kept the movie’s midnight-screening tradition alive for decades.
That same year, Curry published his memoir, “Vagabond,” looking back on his childhood, theater beginnings and decades working across stage and screen. The book gave the famously private performer an opportunity to reflect on his unusual career and on the bond audiences formed with characters who often existed at the strange, comic or unsettling edges of a story.
Curry never married and had no children. His death closes a career that stretched for nearly six decades and crossed some of entertainment’s most distinct worlds, from Shakespearean stages and Broadway musicals to horror, comedy and children’s animation. No cause of death had been publicly announced as of Wednesday.
Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.