Tim Curry, who terrified a generation as the child-eating clown Pennywise and made a cult legend of himself as Frank-N-Furter, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles at 80. He’d been recovering from a serious stroke since 2012.
Curry died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, his longtime agent and manager Marcia Hurwitz confirmed. He was 80.
The role that defined him was Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the self-described “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania” in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Curry originated the part on the London stage in 1973, played the premiere American production in Los Angeles in 1974, and carried it into the 1975 film that became a midnight-screening ritual for fans who show up in costume and sing along. The movie hit its 50th anniversary in 2025.
For a lot of people he’s Pennywise, the murderous demon posing as a clown in the 1990 mini-series of Stephen King’s “It.” He also brought his particular brand of villainy to Rooster Hannigan in “Annie” (1982), the fast-talking butler Wadsworth in “Clue” (1985), Darkness in Ridley Scott’s “Legend,” and Cardinal Richelieu in “The Three Musketeers” (1993). His voice worked as hard as the rest of him, powering animated characters from a hook-billed hawk general to a French-accented cat.
On Broadway he earned Tony nominations for “Amadeus,” “My Favorite Year,” and “Spamalot,” where he played King Arthur. Ben Brantley of The New York Times called him “the best of the cast at translating classic Python style into a musical-comedy idiom.”
Curry suffered a serious stroke in 2012. “I’ve been recovering for quite a long time,” he said last year. He never married and refused to discuss his private life, writing in his 2025 memoir “Vagabond”: “I have loved and been loved and I hope you have, too. But I’m not interested in your romances.”
He kept a light hold on the role that made him. Asked years later how he saw Frank-N-Furter in hindsight, he said, “With a sort of bemused tolerance. It’s neither a blessing nor a curse. I was lucky to get it.”
