Tim Curry, who soared to fame in the ‘70s as the flamboyant star of the campy horror movie stage spoof “The Rocky Horror Show” and its screen version “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles, Variety has confirmed. He was 80.
A cause of death was not immediately available, though Curry had suffered from several health issues since having a severe stroke in 2012.
Though the versatile English actor, singer and voice performer garnered a Daytime Emmy Award and Tony and Olivier Awards nods for a variety of other roles, Curry’s career was defined by his wicked Dr. Frank N. Furter, the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” in composer-playwright-actor Richard O’Brien’s left-of-center musical comedy.
He originated the character on stage in London for director Jim Sharman, brought it to theaters in Los Angeles and New York, and took it to the screen in Sharman’s 1975 film, which flopped initially but found new life as a cult movie. Like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, whose respective turns as Victor Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula in the ‘30s Universal horror films — which inspired “Rocky Horror” — cemented their movie personas, Curry’s profile was forever etched by his performance as the outrageous, bustier-clad mad scientist.
