Timothy James Curry (born April 19, 1946) is an
English actor, singer and
composer, perhaps best known for his role as mad
scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture
Show (1975). He also had a career as a rock
musician. His list of roles is extensive, in both TV and movies, live-action and voice-acting for animated features, and
it is notable that he almost always plays a villain of one kind or another. He currently resides in Los Angeles, though for the
past year or so has been in Chicago, New
York City, and most recently London, with the current Broadway hit Monty Python's Spamalot.
Early life
Curry's father, James, was a Methodist Royal Navy
chaplain, and his mother, Patricia, was a school secretary.[1] Curry was born and raised in Warrington and attended
Lymm High School until his father's death in 1958, when Curry relocated to
South London. He attended Kingswood School and
though he didn't enjoy the religious aspect of the Methodist school, he did enjoy the vast
number of hymns available. There, he developed into a talented boy
soprano. When his voice broke, his music teacher encouraged him to develop a mature singing voice. He cites
Billie Holiday as his major musical influence, saying that he "listened to nothing but
her records for two years" during a period of teenage depression.
Acting career
Rocky Horror
-
Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968. Here he first met Richard O'Brien, who went on to create his next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of
Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show.
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 movie
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.
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 all the fan attention after this role that he
became "chubby and plain" in order to escape it. However, in recent years he has been much more open about discussing the show
and now recognises it as a "rite of passage" for many young people.
Theatre
Shortly after the failure of Rocky Horror Show on Broadway, Curry was back on Broadway with Tom
Stoppard's "Travesties", which ran in London and New York in 1975-1976. "Travesties" was a huge Broadway hit which won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play) and Curry's performance as the famous
dadaist Tristan Tzara received spectacular reviews.
In 1981, he 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 Sir Ian McKellen, who played Antonio Salieri.
In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in a London stage version of The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole. The role
is one of his favourites even now.
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 1993, he played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical
My Favorite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination for
Best Actor in a Musical.
In late 2004, he began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. The show successfully moved to
Broadway in February 2005. His part in the show got him
his third and most recent Tony Award nomination, again for Best Actor in a Musical. Curry went on to star as King Arthur in
London's West End at the Palace
Theatre, where Spamalot opened on October 16, 2006.
Tim's final performance was on January 6 2007 and returned to his home in Los Angeles, a few days later. On January 18, 2007, Curry was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award as the Best Actor in a Musical; this was one of seven nominations earned
by the London production of Spamalot, including Best New Musical. On February 9,
2007 it was announced that Curry also won the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award (getting 39% of the votes cast by over 12,000 theatregoers) as Best Actor in a
Musical for his performance as King Arthur.
Musical career
Read My Lips, Curry's first album release
Aside from his performances on various soundtrack records, Curry has had some success as a solo musical artist. 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 genre. Highlights of the album are a reggae
version of the Beatles song "I Will," a rendition of "Wake
Nicodemus" with full bagpipe backing, and an original bar-room ballad, "Alan."
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, and
is commonly held to be the weakest of his three albums.
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's (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."
Movies and television
Curry's television and movie credits are long and varied. Amongst his most notable roles are:
- "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 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
- Jerome K. Jerome in the BBC's TV movie 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 William Shakepeare: His Life & Times directed by Mark Cullingham, Robert Knights, Peter Wood
(1977)
- Disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia in Times Square (1980)
- One-time guest host of Saturday Night Live (1981); In one memorable
sketch, Curry and Meat Loaf were running their own Rocky Horror memorabilia store.
- Larry Gormley in BBC's TV comedy Blue Money (1982)
- Rooster Hannigan in the musical Annie (1982)
- Lord of Darkness in the film Legend (1985)(he is nearly unrecognizable in the
role, as he was covered in heavy special-effects makeup, and his voice was lowered electronically.)
- Wadsworth the Butler 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 The Wall Live in Berlin (1990)
- Pennywise the Dancing Clown in 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)
- Cardinal Richelieu in Disney's
The Three Musketeers (1993)
- Corrupt scientist Farley Claymore in The Shadow (1994)
- Gaal in Earth 2 (1994)
- Herkermer Homolka in Congo (1995)
- Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure
Island (1996)
- The ships' purser who looted cabins and raped a passenger as the Titanic sank, in the Titanic miniseries, (1996)
- "Poet Man" in Lexx (1997) in the episode "Supernova"
- Gomez Addams in Addams Family
Reunion (1998)
- "Jezebel Jack" in Pirates of the Plain (1999) from the creators of Ernest.
- "Edward Whatsett St. John" in Jackie's Back! (1999)
- Roger Corwin in Charlie's Angels (2000)
- Felix in Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000)
- Damien Kemp in "Sorted" (2000)
- 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)
- Thurman Rice in Kinsey (2004)
- Nigel St. Nigel in "Psych" second season episode "American
Duos" (2007)
He has said that he considers his most memorable performance to be Frank-N-Furter. However, he has stated that he considers
his favorite role to be Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island because of his chance to work with Miss Piggy. Curry has also said another of his favorite roles was Dr. Poole in Oscar.
Voice acting
From the early 1990s onward, Curry has been also become known as a highly-acclaimed voice
artist. Notable roles include:
Curry was cast as the Joker in Warner Brothers' Batman: The Animated Series, and even recorded several episodes worth of dialogue, but
the producers felt his interpretation was too dark and frightening. They recast Mark Hamill
in the role, who leavened the character's darkness with an unpredictable sense of humor. It's also been claimed that Curry was
sacked because the voice he used to play the Joker was essentially the same he employed for Captain Hook and refused to change
it. [citation needed]
At the end of 2002, he served as the narrator in a parody of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" for Nickelodeon.
Curry was also cast as the voice of SIR (Simulated Intelligence Robotics) at Walt Disney World's "Alien Encounter", which ran
from 1995-2003.
Awards and nominations
References
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External links
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