Tim Curry

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Tim Curry
Curry at Museum of the Moving Image's Salute to Alec Baldwin in New York City.
Born	Timothy James Curry (1946-04-19) 19 April 1946 (age 66) Grappenhall, Cheshire, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, Singer
Years active	1968–present

Timothy James "Tim" Curry (born 19 April 1946) is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. Curry first became known to film audiences with his breakthrough role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, reprising the role he played in the 1973 London and 1974 Los Angeles stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show, then later for his supporting roles as Rooster in the film adaption of Annie (1982), Lord of Darkness in the film Legend (1985), Wadsworth in the film Clue (1985), as well as a starring role portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the horror film It (1990).

He voiced Nigel Thornberry, the father in the Nickelodeon children's TV show The Wild Thornberrys. He originated the role of King Arthur in the Broadway hit Monty Python's Spamalot. He is notable for often playing or voicing villainous characters in film. Curry resides in Beverly Hills, California and London.

Early life

Curry's father, James, was a Methodist chaplain in the Royal Navy, and his mother, Patricia, was a school secretary.^[1] Curry was born and brought up in Grappenhall, Cheshire and attended Lymm High School until his father's death in 1958. Curry's family then moved to South London, but Curry himself went to boarding school and attended Kingswood School in Bath, Somerset. As a child, he developed into a talented boy soprano (treble).^[2] Deciding to concentrate on acting, Curry graduated from Birmingham University with a combined degree in English and drama.^[3]

Acting career

Rocky Horror

Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he first met Richard O'Brien^[4] who went on to write Curry's next full-time role, that of Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show.^[5] Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, but the character evolved into the sly, very upper class English mad scientist and transvestite that carried over to the film version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and made Curry both a star and a cult figure. He continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles and New York until 1975. Critics praised Curry's performance as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Roger Ebert called him "the best thing in the movie, maybe because he seems to be having the most fun. He's also a capable actor".

For many years, Curry was reluctant to talk about Rocky Horror, feeling that it was a trend that had gone too far and had distracted attention away from his later roles. A VH1 Pop-Up Video Halloween special even quoted Curry as saying he grew so unnerved by the fan attention from this role he became "chubby and plain" in order to escape it. However, he has become much more open about discussing the show and now recognizes it as a "rite of passage" for many young people.

Theatre

Curry at the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1995.

Shortly after the end of Rocky Horror Show on Broadway, Curry was back on Broadway with Tom Stoppard's Travesties, which ran in London and New York from 1975 to 1976. Travesties was a Broadway hit which won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play), and Curry's performance as the famous dadaist Tristan Tzara received good reviews.

In 1981, Curry formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was nominated for his first Tony Award (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for this role, but lost out to his co-star Ian McKellen, who played Antonio Salieri. In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in the Drury Lane production of Joe Papp's version of The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole, earning enthusiastic reviews.

In the mid 1980s, Curry performed in The Rivals (Bob Acres 1983) and in several plays with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including The Threepenny Opera (MacHeath 1986), Dalliance (Theodore 1986), and Love For Love (Tattle 1985). In 1987-88, Curry did the national tour of Me and My Girl as the lead role of 'Bill Snibson', a role originated on Broadway by Robert Lindsay and followed by Jim Dale. In 1989-90, Tim Curry returned once again to the New York stage in The Art of Success. In 1993, Curry played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical version of My Favourite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

In 2001, Curry starred as Scrooge in the musical version of A Christmas Carol that played at Madison Square Garden. In 2004, Curry began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. The show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005. The show sold more than $1 million worth of tickets in its first 24 hours.^[6] It brought him a third Tony nomination, again for Best Actor in a Musical. Curry reprised this role in London's West End at the Palace Theatre, where Spamalot opened on 16 October 2006. His final performance came on 6 January 2007. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award as the Best Actor in a Musical for the role and also won the Theatregoers' Choice Award (getting 39% of the votes cast by over 12,000 theatregoers) as Best Actor in a Musical.

From May to August 2011, Curry was scheduled to portray the Player in a Trevor Nunn stage production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then in London. He withdrew from the production on 27 May, citing ill health.^[7]

Curry in New York City in 2005.

From 26–29 April 2012, Tim Curry appeared in Eric Idle's new play ″What About Dick?″ at the Orpheum in Los Angeles.^[8]

Musical career

Aside from his performances on various soundtrack records, Curry has had some success as a solo musical artist. In 1976, he recorded a 9-song album for Lou Adler's Ode Records which was unreleased in its entirety until February 2010, when it was made available as a legal download (4 tracks from these sessions had been released on a 1990 Rocky Horror box set). In 1978, A&M Records released Curry's debut solo album, Read My Lips. The album featured an eclectic range of songs (mostly covers) performed in diverse genres. Highlights of the album are a reggae version of the Beatles song "I Will", a rendition of "Wake Nicodemus" featuring the Pipes and Drums of the 48th Highlanders of Canada, and a bar-room ballad, "Alan", composed by Canadian singer/songwriter Tony Kosinec.

The following year, Curry released his second and most successful album, Fearless. The LP was more rock-oriented than Read My Lips and mostly featured original songs rather than cover versions. The record included Curry's only US charting songs: "I Do the Rock" and "Paradise Garage".

Curry's third and final album, Simplicity, was released in 1981, again by A&M Records. This record, which did not sell as well as the previous offerings, combined both original songs and cover versions.

In 1989, A&M released The Best of Tim Curry on CD and cassette, featuring songs from his albums (including a live version of "Alan") and a previously unreleased song, a live cover version of Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate".

Curry toured America with his band through the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. He also performed in Roger Waters' (of Pink Floyd fame) 1990 production of The Wall in Berlin, as the prosecutor. Curry's voice also appeared on the Clash's Sandinista!, on the track "Sound of Sinners".

The writing, production and musician roster for Curry's solo albums included an impressive list of collaborators, including Bob Ezrin and David Sanborn.

Real estate career

Apart from his activities as an actor, Curry has also developed several properties in the city of Los Angeles. Among these is a 1926 Mediterranean Italianate Revival estate located on Nottingham Avenue just below Griffith Park Observatory in the Los Feliz district.^[9]

Filmography

Films and television

Curry's television and film credits are long and varied. A partial list of roles:

• "Madman" in a telefilm of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (1972)
• Glen in Schmoedipus, a BBC Play for Today TV episode written by Dennis Potter and directed by Barry Davis (1974)
• Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
• Jerome K. Jerome in the BBC's TV film Three Men in a Boat (1975)
• Has-been rock star Stevie Streeter in Rock Follies of '77 (1977)
• William Shakespeare in a 6-hour British TV series Will Shakespeare directed by Mark Cullingham, Robert Knights, Peter Wood (1977)
• Robert Graves in "The Shout" (1978)
• Disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia in Times Square (1980)
• Host of Saturday Night Live (1981); in one sketch, Curry and Meat Loaf ran a "Rocky Horror" memorabilia store.
• Larry Gormley in LWT's TV comedy Blue Money (1982)
• Rooster Hannigan in the musical Annie (1982)
• Lord of Darkness in the film Legend (1985)
• Captain Gantu in Lilo & Stitch (2002)
• Wadsworth in the film Clue (1985)
• The Grand Wizard in The Worst Witch (1986)
• Pentecostal televangelist in Pass the Ammo (1988)
• Rapacious record producer Winston Newquay in Wiseguy (1989)
• The Prosecutor in Roger Waters' 1990 Performance of The Wall – Live in Berlin (1990)
• Pennywise in Stephen King's It (1990)
• Dr. Petrov in The Hunt for Red October (1990)
• Dr. Thornton Poole the elocutionist in the film Oscar (1991)
• The Plaza Hotel concierge, Mr. Hector, in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
• Mr. Jigsaw in the film Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
• Roger in 2 episodes of Roseanne (1993)
• Cardinal Richelieu in Disney's The Three Musketeers (1993)
• Pa, Ma, and Winoma Brackett in Death of Some Salesman from Tales from the Crypt (1993)
• Corrupt scientist Farley Claymore in The Shadow (1994)
• Gaal in Earth 2 (1994)
• Kilokahn in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad (1994)
• Herkermer Homolka, Romanian philanthropist in Congo (1995) – Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor
• Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996)^[5]
• Simon Doonan in the Titanic miniseries (1996)
• Major Vladikov in McHale's Navy (1997)
• Dr. Kao in Doom Runners (1997)
• "Poet Man" in Lexx (1997) in the episode "Supernova"
• Simon Ferguson in Over the Top (1997)
• Gomez Addams in Addams Family Reunion (1998)
• "The Sorcerer" (voice only) in The Net (1998–99)
• "Jezebel Jack" in Pirates of the Plain (1999) from the creators of Ernest.
• "Edward Whatsett St. John" in Jackie's Back! (1999)
• "Officer Lightoller" in The Titanic Chronicles (1999)
• Roger Corwin in Charlie's Angels (2000)
• Felix in Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000)
• Damien Kemp in Sorted (2000)
• Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II in Attila (2001)
• Professor Oldman in Scary Movie 2 (2001)
• Harley Dune in Wolf Girl (sometimes listed as Blood Moon (2001)
• Vet Matthew Hope in Ritual from the Tales from the Crypt (2001)
• Priest in The Scoundrel's Wife aka Home Front (2002)
• Butler Mr. Giles French in the remake of Family Affair (2002)
• Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck in the Mr. Monk Goes to Jail episode of the Monk (TV series) (2004)
• Thurman Rice in Kinsey (2004)
• Marion Finster in Will & Grace (2004)
• Caspar Pennington in Bailey's Billion$ (2005)
• Nigel St. Nigel in Psych second season episode "American Duos" (2007)
• Gordon McLoosh in Christmas in Wonderland (2007)
• Coeur De Noir in The Secret of Moonacre (2008)
• Trymon in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008)
• Lord Greville Boynton in Agatha Christie's Poirot: Appointment with Death (2008)
• Dodo in Alice (2009)
• Signor Brunoni in Return to Cranford (2010)
• Captain Gantu in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (2010)
• Dr. Monroe in Burke and Hare (2010)^[10]
• The UnSub, Billy Flynn, Derek Morgan's nemesis in Criminal Minds fifth season episode "Our Darkest Hour" and sixth season episode "The Longest Night"(2010)

Voice acting

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From the early 1990s onward, Curry has also become known as a highly acclaimed voice artist. Notable roles include:

• Voice of priest on the Clash "Sound Of The Sinners" song from album Sandinista! (1981)
• The Serpent in "The Creation", an episode of The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible
• Judas Iscariot in "The Easter Story", episode of The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible
• Captain James S. Hook in Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates TV series (1990)
• Klang in Tale Spin TV series (1990)
• Konk in Hanna–Barbera's TV series The Pirates of Dark Water (1990)
• M.A.L., evil sentient computer programme and assistant to Doctor Blight in Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–93)
• Sir Gawain in The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991–94)
• Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck (1991)
• Reginald and Prince Charles in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures (1991)
• Sultan, Maximus, additional voices in The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda (1990-91)
• Chief Elder in Dinosaurs TV series (1992–94)
• Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
• The Evil Manta in The Little Mermaid Series (1992–94)
• Sharkster in Fish Police (1992)
• S.I.R. – Alien Encounter (Magic Kingdom Attraction) (1995)
• King Maximillian Acorn on three episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993)
• Skullmaster in Mighty Max (1993)
• Dr. Maelstrom in Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (1994)
• The Atrocimator in Turbocharged Thunderbirds (1994)
• Kilokahn in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad (1994)
• George Herbert Walker "King" Chicken on Duckman (1994–97)
• Dr. Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles (1994)^[5]
• Pretorius in the cartoon series The Mask: The Animated Series (1995)
• Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
• Dr. Mystico in Freakazoid! (1995)
• Zimbo in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (1996)
• Lazlo Gigahurtz in Bruno the Kid (1996)
• Lord Dragaunus in Disney's The Mighty Ducks TV Series (1996)
• Trader Slick in the Jumanji animated TV series (1996)
• Prince Lotor and King Alfor in Voltron: The Third Dimension (1996)
• Nostro the head elf in The Story of Santa Claus (1996)
• Forté in Disney's Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
• The frog in the Teen Angel episode, "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog" (1997)
• Emperor Nero in the Easter Storykeepers (1997)
• Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999)
• Rex Pester in The Rugrats Movie (1998)
• The Skull in Bartok the Magnificent (1999)
• King Renard in Xyber 9: New Dawn (1999)
• Leichliter in Hey Arnold! (1999-2004)
• Dr. Neugog in The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
• Captain Fitzgerald in Lion of Oz (2000)
• Mutro Botho in Batman Beyond
• Slagar the Cruel in the TV series Redwall based on the books by Brian Jacques
• The Goose God in Courage the Cowardly Dog (2001)
• Spooky the cat in Teacher's Pet (2001)
• The Mouse King in Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)
• Scarlet Fever and Nick O'Teen in Ozzy & Drix (2002-04)
• Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004), The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002) and Rugrats Go Wild (2003)
• Professor Finbarr Calamitous in several episodes of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002, 2004–06)
• Hazzaka in the first episode of K10C: Kids' Ten Commandments
• The Cat King in The Cat Returns (English dub) (2005)
• General Von Talon in Valiant (2005)
• The Magnificent Rogue on Duck Dodgers
• El Malefico in ¡Mucha Lucha!: The Return of El Malefico.
• Narrator of the Lemony Snicket audio books
• Narrator of the Abhorsen Trilogy audio books
• Ringmaster in Loonatics Unleashed (2005)
• Mr. Salamone in Eloise: The Animated Series (2006)
• Prince in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
• King Evilo in Nick's Evil Ways (2006)
• Yegor in Fly Me to the Moon (2007)
• The Chosen One (2007)
• Dr. Joseph Chadwick in Ben 10: Alien Force (2008)
• Philippe in Barbie and the Three Musketeers (2009)
• Stubbings and Dr. Lloyd Wexler in Phineas and Ferb
• Henchman and Robot Clown in Batman: The Animated Series
• The librarian in Higglytown Heroes
• The Goblin King in Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King
• The Ring Master Piccadilly in Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey! (2010)
• The Hot Dog Leader/The "Master" Prank Caller in Regular Show
• Sonnicula in Bunnicula (2011)
• Narrator of A Journey to the Center of the Earth audio book by Jules Verne
• Emperor in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness
• Narrator of Cravendale adverts (2011-)
• Van Helsing in "Dracula" dramatized audio book (2012)
• G. Gordon Godfrey in Young Justice: Invasion (2012)

Games

• Gabriel Knight in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993) and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999)
• Melek in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994)
• Doctor Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster (1996)
• Count Nefarious in Toonstruck (1996)
• Decanter in The Day the World Broke (1997)
• Stratos, the God of Air in the video game Sacrifice (2000)
• Mastermind in Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights (2002)
• Lemony Snicket in Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2004)
• Professor Finbarr Calamitous in Nicktoons Unite! (2005) and Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (2007)
• The sailor in Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
• Premier Anatoly Cherdenko in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (2008)
• Emperor Doviculus in Brütal Legend (2009)^[11]
• Arl Rendon Howe in Dragon Age: Origins (2009)^[12]
• Jean Descole in Professor Layton and the Last Specter (english dub) (2011)

Awards and nominations

• 1975 Drama Desk Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing Dr. Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show)
• 1981 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Play (for playing the title role in Amadeus)
• 1981 Drama Desk Award nomination, Best Actor in a Play (for playing the title role in Amadeus)
• 1991 Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series (for playing Captain James S. Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates)
• 1993 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing Alan Swann in My Favorite Year)
• 1994 Emmy Award^[13] nomination, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (for a trio of roles in Tales from the Crypt, in an episode entitled Death of Some Salesmen)
• 1996 Razzie Award nomination, Worst Supporting Actor (for playing Herkermer Homolka in Congo)
• 1998 Annie Award nomination, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production (for playing Forté in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas)
• 2005 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot)
• 2007 Laurence Olivier Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot)
• 2007 Whatsonstage Theatregoers' Choice Award as Best Actor in a Musical (King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tim Curry

• Tim Curry at the Internet Movie Database
• Tim Curry at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tim Curry at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Tim Curry at BFI Film & TV Database
• Tim Curry at TV Tropes
• Tim Curry at RockyMusic.org
• Fresh Air interview with Tim Curry
• Tim Curry Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing
• Tim Curry at Emmys.com