The acclaimed British actor, author, comedian and singer was best known for playing cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the iconic late night movie classic.
English actor and singer Tim Curry photographed in the UK on January 23rd 1974.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Tim Curry, the classically trained British actor and singer best known for playing the flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the legendary midnight movie classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show has died at 80. According to TMZ, the Emmy-winning star of stage and screen (who suffered a major stroke in 2012) died on Tuesday night (Aug. 25) at his Los Angeles home, with no known cause of death at press time. Curry’s passing was confirmed to Billboard by Grand Central Publishing, which published his memoir, Vagabond: A Memoir, in 2025.
After gaining notice as part of the original cast of the British production of the musical Hair in 1968, Curry rose to international stardom in the role that would come to define his half-century career as the lascivious, lingerie-wearing Frank-N-Furter in the original stage production of The Rocky Horror Show, a b-movie send-up that chronicles the misadventures of a naive couple who take refuge from a storm in the home of mad scientist Furter.
