Tim Curry passed away on August 27, 2026, at the age of 80. Curry didn’t perform in many horror productions, but when he did, they had a lasting impact. In all his horror films, he spent hours in a makeup chair, whether it was under cakes of makeup or full-on prosthetics. He hasn’t been credited as much as Karloff, Doug Jones, or Lon Chaney, but Curry should go down as one of the all-time greats for costume/makeup acting. His over-the-top personality and hugely expressive face shone through any prosthetics he worked with.
That grin. Oh, that Cheshire Cat grin! The flash of those unmistakable choppers let you know who was behind any mask that he wore. Had he not been an age peer of Freddie Mercury, he would have made an ideal stand-in for the famed Queen front man. He had both the teeth and the voice for it. Both men were heroes of the gay community, though Curry famously kept his sexual orientation a secret all the way to his passing.
He wore perhaps the most top-heavy prosthetic as the devil Darkness in Ridley Scott’s dark fantasy Legend. Curry seemed to enjoy the role, and though the film is largely forgotten, his profile has been permanently etched in film history. He also earned an Emmy nomination for playing three eccentric oddballs (including two women) in Tales From the Crypt: Death of Some Salesmen, who take out their loathing hatred of salesmen on Ed Begley Jr., who happens to be a traveling con-man.
Most famously, he portrayed the corset-and-gartered Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). I remember, as a child, thinking this must be a SCARY movie. It is, after all, a Horror Picture Show. But no, it’s a musical with hints of horror. Not so scary! That is, unless you are an insecure MAGA Karen who believes that trans people are the most dangerous threat to our country. Be afraid. Be very afraid. We at the Scariest Things will continue to list The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a horror production, as it is one of our great horror musicals of all time.
Personal Memories of Curry:
One of my seminal movie theater moments came at the Clinton Street Theater in 1989. The Clinton has been playing The Rocky Horror Picture Show every Saturday Night since April of 1978, and is still going strong today. I was a Rocky “virgin”, and admittedly a lightweight drinker. My group of friends included Elise, a veteran Rocky attendee who leaped up and became Columbia for the evening. I was transfixed with the whole proceedings, but also had been nursing an Old English 800 malt liquor, and my mind gave out. I think I blacked out in the middle of the Time Warp. A rite of passage… and I failed!
It was must-see TV in 1990. My roomies and I (still in college) were transfixed by the show and eagerly anticipating what it would be like. We were fans of the book and were debating what they could possibly show from Stephen King’s monster tome, given the limitations of broadcast television. It couldn’t possibly be as scary as the book, right? And then we saw Tim Curry, and we were convinced. This was as scary as television could get, and MOST of that was because of how well Curry did Pennywise.
It was both difficult and inspiring to see how Curry managed to soldier on after his stroke in 2012. There is a great video clip of Curry and Rob Reiner (RIP), where Rob asked Tim if he had any regrets about romantic opportunities passing him by. The notoriously private Curry then opened up and said, “Yes. Miss Piggy.” SO COOL.
Bravo, sir, and thank you for the memories. May your passage to the big beyond be a peaceful one.
