Tim Curry in 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' 'It,' and 'Clue.' Had Tim Curry done nothing but play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the lingerie-clad doctor from Transylvania who helped turn The Rocky Horror Picture Show into the granddaddy of all midnight movies, he would have already been assured a place in cinema-history books. But the British actor, who died at the age of 80, had a long, illustrious and diverse career — playing everything from English kings to evil clowns, buccaneers to butlers, William Shakespeare to a smooth-talking radio NYC D.J. (Don’t even get us started about the insanely prolific amount of voiceover work Curry did, which he kept up even after suffering a seriously debilitating stroke in 2012.)
“Much like a painter might consider what to do with a blank canvas, or a gardener with a blank space in the backyard, a vagabond looks upon the world as a field of potential and possibility,” Curry said, in his 2025 memoir Vagabond, “where beauty can be not just found but created, and adventure awaits any and all who are willing to seek it out.” He brought that same sense of possibility and adventure — along with a potent amount of creative mischief and a subversive sense of play — to his best roles. From Frank-N-Furter to the original Pennywise, here are nine of Curry’s most unforgettable roles.
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‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ (1975)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox How do you do? In the 50 years since this midnight movie first premiered in theaters, its story of a repressed, virginal couple interacting with freaky bastions of kink has remained one of the longest running theatrical releases in film history. And while Brad and Janet wrestle with the strange inhabitants of a mysterious mansion, it’s Curry as that “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank-N-Furter who remains the defining character of the entire production. Who could forget the first glimpse of those white bedazzled platform heels, moments before a shrieking guitar riff heralds the first glance of the runaway member of the planet Transsexual. Rocky Horror was Curry’s debut film performance, and left a generation shivering with antici…pa-tion about everything he’d do from then on. “I can’t imagine a better role to enable me to embrace my contradictions and see them through,” he wrote in his memoir. “I learned not to limit myself — artistically, professionally, sexually or mentally.” Frank-N-Furter will live forever. —CT Jones
