Tim Curry has died at the age of 80.
TMZ first reported the death, citing sources who said Curry passed away late Tuesday night, August 25, at his Los Angeles home.
Law enforcement sources told the outlet that police responded to the residence at 11:23 p.m. and that no foul play is suspected.
The Hollywood Reporter and multiple other outlets have since published their own reports. As of this writing, no statement has been issued by Curry’s family or representatives.
Curry had been in declining health for more than a decade following a major stroke in 2012 that required brain surgery.
To the general public, Curry was Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the corseted, fish-netted mad scientist of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a role he originated on stage in London in 1973 and carried through Broadway and into the 1975 film.
Pennywise Set The Bar For Every Stephen King Adaptation That Followed
Curry played Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 ABC miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It, and the performance did something remarkable: it terrified a generation of kids watching network television on a school night, with no gore, no budget, and a storm drain.
Tim Curry’s Pennywise is why the character became a permanent fixture of American horror instead of a footnote in a doorstop novel.
Bill Skarsgård’s 2017 version is excellent and made close to $1.2 billion across two films, but it was building on a foundation Curry poured in a made-for-TV movie 27 years earlier.
That foundation is still generating product. HBO Max’s It: Welcome to Derry debuted to strong numbers, and Andy Muschietti is now deep into Season 2, set in 1935. Every dollar that franchise earns traces back through Curry.
He Was The Joker Before Mark Hamill Was
Curry’s was also originally cast as the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series.
Curry recorded dialogue for the role — by most accounts several episodes’ worth — before Warner Bros. Animation replaced him with Mark Hamill.
The accounts of why diverge. Voice director Andrea Romano and co-creator Bruce Timm have described a creative disconnect, with producer Alan Burnett unable to click with the take. Curry’s version was blunter. He said he came down with bronchitis and “they fired me — and hired Mark Hamill.”
Curry didn’t stay away from DC. He turned up in Batman: The Animated Series in uncredited roles anyway, including his laugh being used for a Joker robot in the Season 1 episode “Be a Clown,” and he later voiced media manipulator G. Gordon Godfrey on Young Justice, a part he had to give up after the stroke, with James Arnold Taylor taking over in Season 3.
Darkness, Palpatine, And The Best Villain Voice In The Business
He played Darkness in Ridley Scott’s Legend (1985) under hours of Rob Bottin prosthetics — enormous horns, red skin, cloven hooves — and still delivered one of the great screen devils.
He was Wadsworth in Clue. He was the Concierge in Home Alone 2. He was Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. He was Hexxus in FernGully, a pollution demon who sings.
In animation he was everywhere: Dr. Anton Sevarius on Disney’s Gargoyles, Taurus Bulba on Darkwing Duck, Skullmaster on Mighty Max, Captain Hook on Peter Pan & the Pirates, Professor Calamitous on Jimmy Neutron, Kilokahn on Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, and — swinging hard the other way — beloved naturalist Nigel Thornberry on The Wild Thornberrys.
And for Star Wars fans: Curry took over as Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious on The Clone Wars after Ian Abercrombie’s death in January 2012, officially announced in February 2013. He voiced the character through “The Wrong Jedi” and the sixth season.
Dave Filoni said at the time that the search required someone who could stand alongside what Ian McDiarmid and Abercrombie had built, and praised Curry’s ability to reach the Sith register when the scene called for it.
The 2012 Stroke And His Final Years
Curry suffered a major stroke in July 2012 that required brain surgery and left him using a wheelchair.
He described the moment in interviews with characteristic dryness: he was mid-massage, didn’t notice anything wrong, and thought calling an ambulance was silly.
The stroke cost him roles. He was unable to reprise Godfrey on Young Justice or Doctor Morocco on Transformers: Rescue Bots, among others, and he shifted almost entirely to voice work.
He kept going anyway. He released a memoir, Vagabond, and spoke publicly around the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 2025. He was candid about his limits then, telling People that he still couldn’t walk and that “that’s very limiting.”
Timothy James Curry was born April 19, 1946, in Grappenhall, Cheshire, England, the son of a Royal Navy chaplain who died when Curry was 12.
He studied English and drama at the University of Birmingham and made his professional debut in the 1968 West End production of Hair, where he met Richard O’Brien, the man who would write the role that changed his life.
