Tim Curry, best known for his scene-stealing role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, died on Tuesday, August 25. He was 80.
The Los Angeles Police Department tells Us that officers responded to a radio call for a “death investigation” at Curry’s home at 11:23 p.m. on Tuesday.
Curry’s cause of death was not immediately known, but he had been plagued with serious health issues for more than a decade. TMZ, which broke the news, reported that no foul play is suspected.
Us has reached out to Curry’s rep for comment.
In May 2013, Curry’s rep confirmed the actor had suffered a stroke in July 2012 that left him partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
Nearly three years after the stroke, Curry shared an update with fans as he received a lifetime achievement award from the Actors Fund.
“I’m doing well,” he told Los Angeles magazine at the time, adding that his sense of humor was “absolutely vital” to his recovery. “It’s not tough to maintain. It is just part of my DNA.”
Curry went on to reflect on his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, noting that he looked back on it “with a sort of bemused tolerance” after it launched his film career. “It’s neither a blessing nor a curse,” he said. “I was lucky to get it.”
Despite his health issues, Curry continued to make appearances at fan events and shifted his focus to voice acting. In 2016, he served as the narrator for The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again, which saw Laverne Cox taking over his original role.
Curry told People at the time that he was pleased to be “coming back to the project, which I hold very dear. It’s very exciting. It will be very interesting because it’s very close to me.”
Curry was born in Cheshire, England, in April 1946. He got his start in theater, acting in the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968. He subsequently starred as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1973 stage production of The Rocky Horror Show, and his breakthrough moment came when he reprised the role in the film adaptation.
After the movie’s release, Curry appeared in a Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show. Although it closed after just 45 performances, he returned to the stage in Travesties and Amadeus, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination in 1981.
As he landed more film and TV gigs, Curry also released three studio albums: 1978’s Read My Lips, 1979’s Fearless and 1981’s Simplicity. The following year, he played Rooster in the 1982 hit film adaptation of Annie. In 1990, Curry portrayed another career-defining character, Pennywise, in the television miniseries It. He later originated the role of King Arthur in Spamalot in 2005, for which he received another Tony Award nomination.
Curry was also known for his roles as butler Wadsworth in 1985’s Clue, the Plaza Hotel concierge in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Nigel Thornberry in Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys, which aired from 1998 to 2004. He released a memoir, Vagabond, in October 2025.
