Actor Tim Curry, best known for his unforgettable performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, has died at the age of 80, Variety, TMZ and other entertainment outlets reported Wednesday.
No cause of death was immediately given. Curry had faced serious health problems for years after suffering a severe stroke that left him dependent on a wheelchair. In his memoir Vagabond, published last year, he wrote that he had still been unable to walk.
Curry built a career across stage, film, television, music and video games, earning Laurence Olivier and Tony Award nominations for his theater work in Britain and the United States. He also received an Emmy for his television performances later in his career.
Born in Cheshire in 1946 to a Navy family, Curry spent his childhood moving between different homes in Britain and Hong Kong. He eventually attended school in Bath, where he stood out as a soprano singer, before going to university in Birmingham.
He began appearing in London musicals in the late 1960s and early 1970s, searching for the role that would establish him as a major performer. That opportunity came in 1973 with an unconventional musical that would later become one of cinema's most enduring cult films.
