Tim Curry

Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is a British actor and singer.

Timothy James Curry was born on 19 April 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, the son of school secretary Patricia (died June 1999) and Royal Navy chaplain James Curry.

His father died of pneumonia in 1958, when Curry was 12 years old.

Deciding to concentrate on acting, he graduated from the University of Birmingham with a combined BA in English and drama in 1968.

Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he met Richard O'Brien, who went on to write Curry's next full-time role, that of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (1973).

Curry recalled his first encounter with the project:

"I'd heard about the play because I lived on Paddington Street, off Baker Street, and there was an old gym a few doors away. I saw Richard O'Brien in the street, and he said he'd just been to the gym to see if he could find a muscleman who could sing. I said, 'Why do you need him to sing?' [laughs] And he told me that his musical was going to be done, and I should talk to Jim Sharman. He gave me the script, and I thought, 'Boy, if this works, it's going to be a smash.'"

Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, and later, with an American accent.

An immediate hit, a reviewer at the premiere in London in June 1973 wrote Curry gives a "garishly Bowiesque performance as the ambisextrous doctor."

He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London and 1974 Los Angeles musical stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show.

Curry's other stage work includes various roles in the original West End production of Hair, Tristan Tzara in the 1975 West End and Broadway productions of Travesties, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1980 Broadway production of Amadeus, Alan Swann in the Broadway production of My Favourite Year, and King Arthur in Broadway and West End productions of Spamalot from 2005 to 2007.

His theatre accolades include three Tony Award nominations and two Laurence Olivier Award nominations.

This change carried over to the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which made Curry a household name and gave him a cult following.

Curry continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles, and New York City until 1975.

In an interview with NPR, Curry called Rocky Horror a "rite of passage", and added that the film is "a guaranteed weekend party to which you can go with or without a date and probably find one if you don't have one, and it's also a chance for people to try on a few roles for size, you know? Figure out, help them maybe figure out their own sexuality".

Shortly after the end of Rocky Horror's run on Broadway, Curry returned to the stage with Tom Stoppard's Travesties, which ran in London and New York from 1975 to 1976.

Travesties was a Broadway hit.

It won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play), and Curry's performance as the famous dadaist Tristan Tzara received good reviews.

Other notable film appearances include The Shout (1978), Times Square (1980), The Worst Witch (1986), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Oscar (1991), Congo (1995), Charlie's Angels (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Kinsey (2004).

As a singer, Curry has released three rock-focused studio albums: Read My Lips (1978), Fearless (1979), and Simplicity (1981).

In the mid-1980s, Curry performed in The Rivals and in several plays with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including The Threepenny Opera, Dalliance and Love For Love.

In 1981, Curry formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Curry was nominated for his first Tony Award (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for this role but lost out to his co-star Ian McKellen, who played Antonio Salieri.

Curry received further acclaim for his film and television roles, including Rooster Hannigan in the film adaptation of Annie (1982), Darkness in Legend (1985), Wadsworth in Clue (1985), Pennywise in the miniseries It (1990), the Concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (1993), and Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996).

In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in the Drury Lane production of Joe Papp's version of The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole, earning enthusiastic reviews.

In 1988, he did the national tour of Me and My Girl in the lead role of Bill Snibson, a role originated on Broadway by Robert Lindsay and followed by Jim Dale.

In 1989–90, Curry returned once again to the New York stage in The Art of Success, and in 1993 played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical version of My Favorite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.

Curry is also a prolific voice actor, with roles in animation including his Emmy Award-winning performance as Captain Hook on Peter Pan & the Pirates (1990–1991), Hexxus in the film FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), King Chicken in Duckman (1994–1997), Sir Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004), and Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012–2014).

His elder sister, Judith, was a concert pianist who died of a brain tumour in 2001.

Curry spent most of his childhood in Plymouth.

After his father's death, Curry and his family moved to South London, where he attended boarding school before attending Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset.

Curry developed into a talented boy soprano (treble).

In 2001, Curry appeared as Scrooge in the musical version of A Christmas Carol that played at Madison Square Garden.

In 2004, Curry began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago.

In March 2005, in an interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air, he explained that he decided to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter with an English accent after listening to an English woman say, "Do you have a house in town or a house in the country," and decided, "Yes, [Dr. Frank-N-Furter] should sound like the Queen."

Curry originally thought the character was merely a laboratory doctor dressed in a white lab coat.

However, at the suggestion of director Sharman, the character evolved into the diabolical mad scientist and transvestite with an upper-class Belgravia accent.

Written by Monty Python member Eric Idle and based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005.

It sold more than $1 million worth of tickets in its first 24 hours.

In 2016, Curry played The Criminologist in the television film remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.