Tim Curry: 9 Essential Movies

How do you do? In the 50 years since this midnight movie first premiered in theaters, its story of a repressed, virginal couple interacting with freaky bastions of kink has remained one of the longest running theatrical releases in film history. And while Brad and Janet wrestle with the strange inhabitants of a mysterious mansion, it’s Curry as that “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank-N-Furter who remains the defining character of the entire production. Who could forget the first glimpse of those white bedazzled platform heels, moments before a shrieking guitar riff heralds the first glance of the runaway member of the planet Transsexual. Rocky Horror was Curry’s debut film performance, and left a generation shivering with antici…pa-tion about everything he’d do from then on. “I can’t imagine a better role to enable me to embrace my contradictions and see them through,” he wrote in his memoir. “I learned not to limit myself — artistically, professionally, sexually or mentally.” Frank-N-Furter will live forever.  —CT Jones

We should be so lucky to have a guardian angel like Johnny LaGuardia, Curry’s late-night radio D.J. from Allan Moyle’s early Eighties cult classic. Having received a letter from a listener identified as “Zombie Girl,” LaGuardia soon realizes she’s one of the two runaways — played by Trini Alvarado and Robin Johnson — who the authorities are trying to track down. He then encourages the duo to form a punk rock band called the Sleez Sisters and keep sticking it to the man. It’s the sort of puckish, anti-authoritarian role that Curry specialized in, but listen to how he threads in a sense of empathy and heartbreak to a reply to one of the angry teen’s letters: “Maybe you’re all alone… that’s a pretty scary place to be. You may have to jump off into the darkness. How desperate they feel, those moments before you jump — but you gotta do it.” —David Fear

As the conniving conman “Rooster” Hannigan, Curry adopted an amusing Depression-era New York accent. In the film, he plays the brother of orphanage owner “Aggy” Hannigan (Carol Burnett), and he and his girlfriend, Lily St. Regis (Bernadette Peters), collude to pretend they’re Annie’s parents so they can get the $50,000 the Warbucks family has put up to find Annie’s folks. Curry wrote in his memoir that he adopted the fidgety movements of a stagehand he saw at a Broadway play he’d acted in for Rooster’s mannerisms. Since it’s a comic musical, and he’s the villain, the character’s end is predictable. But Curry played it with swagger (check his leg work during the bawdy song “Easy Street”) and the role opened up his career to more roles in children’s cinema, which would define much of his later career. —Kory Grow

Six strangers enter a mansion. They are trapped until they solve a murder. Whodunit shenanigans ensue. But the biggest crime in the hysterical 1985 board-game-turned-comedy is that it’s not all Tim Curry, all the time. He gives a genius-level performance as Wadsworth, a butler working for the mysterious Mr. Boddy. There’s enough exterior character work to build a whole other film just compiled of Curry’s rolled eyes, astonished faces, and trilled consonants. (That re-enactment scene alone is like a three-act play unto itself.) The butler did it after all  — and gave us a fantastic time at that. —CTJ

Ridley Scott had not originally thought of Curry for the role of Darkness, the villain in this fairy tale starring Tom Cruise; he later admitted he’d been thinking of Peter O’Toole, eventually giving up on the idea because the Lawrence of Arabia star was “so skinny and so pale.” It wasn’t until he took a look at The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as he was thinking of casting one of that film’s actresses to play the swamp sorceress Meg Mucklebones, and caught a glimpse of Curry that he thought, “Oh my god, this is Darkness.” Not even several pounds of prosthetics can hide how much fun he is having in this role, and to say that Curry leans into the character’s devilish charm — see: this scene in particular — is a vast undertstatement. He’s the best thing about the movie by a long shot. —DF

While Tim Curry probably wasn’t a well loved person in the coulrophobia community, the man sure did pull off one hell of a horrifying clown. The adaptations of Stephen King’s epic novel about kids battling a supernatural entity in pancake make-up have come a long way from that original 1990 miniseries. But make no mistake: Curry’s portrayal of the original Pennywise, the evil monster masquerading as a painted jester, is all the more terrifying for the special effects limitations of the time. He is the Losers Club’s biggest nightmare, and he makes the story’s scariest moments unforgettable just by fixing a steely, murderous look in his eyes and a hair-rising grin on his face. “You’ll float, too…” —CTJ

Long before he became a go-to for animation and video game voiceover work, Curry lent his rich baritone to this animated musical feature about a teen logger and a group of mystical fairies attempting to save, per the title, the last rainforest. The actor plays Hexxus, the embodiment of ecological disaster — and the way Curry adds elements of campy humor to this bad guy only makes the movie that much richer. (Listen to the pause he puts in the line “I do believe we are destined to be soul… mates!” and tell me you don’t hear Dr. Frank-N-Furter poking his head out just a little bit.) An entire generation knows Curry primarily for this role, and as this behind-the-scenes peek attests, Curry had a blast doing this gig. He’d soon start putting his golden pipes to use on the regular for any number of animated films and TV shows. —DF

As the concierge Mr. Hector, Curry tiptoes around the Plaza Hotel to keep his eye on the wily Kevin McCallister. The actor had trouble relating to Macaulay Culkin on set, but managed to keep an ear-to-ear grin onscreen, staying in character, as if he pursued the abandoned 10-year-old, suspecting the kid of stealing his dad’s credit card. “Personally, I liked Macaulay, and I have a lot of sympathy for child actors, so I did strive to be patient with him,” Curry wrote in his memoir. “By the early 1990s, young Macaulay had achieved widespread celebrity status and was recognized everywhere. I find that strange as an adult, so I can’t imagine what it must have been like to process it as a kid.” After the film’s release, Curry narrated an audiobook of the novelization of the film. —KG

The flashy, smarmy cook-turned-pirate Long John Silver was a natural role for Curry, who perfectly stepped into the role of villain to young Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop) and several characters Robert Louis Stevenson didn’t invent, including Kermit, Fozzie Bear, and Miss Piggy. The role wasn’t too much of a stretch for Curry, who previously played The Pirates of Penzance’s Pirate King on Broadway, so the boot (and pegleg) perfectly fit him. He even sang his show-stopper “A Professional Pirate” with Penzancian pizzazz and an Irish accent. “It’s my favorite movie,” Curry told The New York Times this past February. “I loved doing it, and I hope it plays forever.” —KG