Tim Curry Was Never Not Having Fun
From Dr Frank-N-Furter to Pennywise the killer clown, Tim Curry played every role at full volume — and made a six-decade career out of refusing to be small.
Tim Curry got the same greeting from Eric Idle every time they met: “Butlers and villains.” Those were the only two roles Hollywood had for a British actor. He played both louder than anyone ever has. (Paramount Pictures)
It’s our miserable fate to lose Dolly Parton and Tim Curry in a one-two punch at the end of summer 2026. Both died at eighty years old, and it seems damned unfair that both didn’t live to be 120 and die mid-performance, which was Parton’s stated goal.
What unites Parton and Curry is their joy. Two happier people would be hard to identify in the notoriously tragic world of showbiz fame, where behind-the-scenes lives tend toward grim pathos. Dolly Parton was known worldwide for her almost incredible levels of wide-smiling, life-loving élan that she managed to communicate to virtually everyone she met, and to everyone she didn’t, via wildly popular songs and film and television performances radiating ecstasy.
Tim Curry’s Joker-esque grin was equally wide and contained something else, an almost salacious glee in performance. Nobody was going to have to ask him twice to get up there and provide some splendidly extroverted entertainment that would give the public something to cheer about. Like so many British actors, he approached his career with alacrity, eager to show up for almost anything. Theater, movies, television, music videos, audiobook and animated film and TV voice work — you name it, you’ll find Tim Curry there. He even cut a few albums.
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