Honestly, even though that's the only thing I've seen Tim Curry in, it's so strong that he has a fond place in my heart just for that performance. Dude knew how ridiculous it was and was having fun, which is a delight. It's hilarious to me watching him try to keep from cracking up in that scene.
i went to the symphony last year to see the movie Clue. the symphony played the music while the movie played on the big screen above. i’d never seen the movie, he was as amazing as everything else i’d seen him in.
I was a fan since university when someone down the corridor would have The Rocky Horror Picture Show playing all the time...
Imagine my delight at seeing him on a packed London Tube one morning on my way to work. He asked to get by and I said something like "Just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right?" waiting for him to burst into song with the whole carriage joining in..
He just scowled and pushed past - still made my day though :)
I and a fellow clerk at a polling station realized that it would be only 15 minutes to the opening and we were the only ones manning it. he began: " it's astounding, time is fleeting" I joined in "madness takes its toll" we continued to the chorus, some seconds before the opening the other people managed to be there and we had our fun, too
It'd be hilarious if it was just some dude who looked a lot like him and is just so sick and tired of how he can't go anywhere without people thinking he's tim curry
Command and Conquer was almost certainly my first exposure to him. I guess it's time to go replay Red Alert 3 and enjoy those cutscenes all over again.
A regular yearly replay is in order for me, too. Already done with SC2... just SC1/WC3/DoW(2)/RA2(mental/flippedmissions/etc)/RA3(uprising)/HOMM3/etc/etc/etc. Ah well.
I often chuckle at the observation that Tim Curry and Michael Caine's respective roles in the Muppet films were so beloved because Michael Caine acted like all the muppets were real actors, and Tim Curry acted like he was a muppet. He would have an impressive range of serious / comedic roles anyway, but I admire the ability for an actor that successful to be able to put himself be in such a silly role that well too.
> Curry emphatically denied that interpretation. “I saw the Muppets as actors with distinct personalities,” he said. “It’s astonishing how quickly you see them as people.”
There's a video that expands on Tim Curry's time with the muppets: The Muppets Brought Out the Best in Tim Curry https://youtu.be/XzU8f4HaQw0
> In this video, we look at why Tim Curry’s Long John Silver works so well in Muppet Treasure Island, not just because he’s funny, theatrical, and completely larger than life, but because he understood the real magic of acting with the Muppets.
> There’s a popular idea that Michael Caine treated the Muppets like real actors, while Tim Curry treated himself like a fellow Muppet. But according to Curry himself, that isn’t quite right. He didn’t see Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo, or the rest of the Muppet crew as props or puppets. He treated them as fully formed characters with their own personalities, timing, and emotional lives. That may be the key to why his performance feels so alive.
> This video essay explores Tim Curry’s casting as Long John Silver, his love for the Muppets, his larger-than-life theatrical style, and the behind-the-scenes energy of Muppet Treasure Island. We also look at how the Muppet performers stayed in character, how Curry approached the songs and comedy, why the “A Professional Pirate” number works so well, and how one surprisingly heartfelt scene with Jim Hawkins revealed a more vulnerable side of Curry’s acting.
Both Tim Curry and that video seem to misinterpret the "popular idea", at least as it is stated in this thread.
It doesn't say anything about how Tim Curry viewed the Muppets, but rather about how Tim Curry treated himself. It stands to reason that if he was, say, method acting as an actual Muppet, that he too would view the other Muppets as fellow actors with their own identities etc.
That was my reading of it too - Curry's response seems to seek to refute something that the original quote didn't actually say!
I can definitely see how someone could interpret it that way, assuming it's implying that he didn't see them as real, but I think that's an incorrect assumption and the quoted observation wasn't actually implying that at all.
Watch the actual film at is obvious he isn't doing that. He shows way more emotional range and subtly than a Muppet is capable of, plus "[his] only number" is not very Muppetty either.
Yeah, I've never understood this observation. The entire shtick of The Muppets was that every celebrity they ever had on the show treated them like real actors and celebrities. Not even "famous Muppets", just straight up celebs.
There’s a difference between the script calling for the actor to treat the Muppets as real, and the actor actually thinking of the Muppets as real actors. In a Muppet production, that’s often what separates a good performance from a great one.
I will always be grateful for his performance as Gabriel Knight, my favorite game of all time. Not only he was one of the pioneers in the medium, but the performance itself is still one of the greatest of all time.
Oh that's right I almost forgot that this film exists - his astounding pronunciation and boogie woogie tailors are two highlights of this strange stage play adaptation. I have to .. no .. i must watch it again.
If you see it next to the
Rocky Horror Picture Show (edit: and as pennywise in IT!) it really displays how wide the interpreting skill of the actor were.
Oh, yes! Dr. Petrov. That film has so many great actors. Connery, Neill, Jeffrey Jones, Peter Firth… it even has a Baldwin and a Skarsgård in the same film.
My wife and I rewatched Congo recently and he was great in that too even through all the goofiness. My wife's also a big fan of the Three Musketeers (that might be the first movie from my childhood I remember him from, come to think of it)
I think it's unfortunate that they chose to adapt _that_ one, really. It's good, but it's before Pratchett really got into his stride, and it's far closer to a straight satire of fantasy novels than subsequent books.
I recall reading that Curry went to the same gym as the actor of Penelope in Criminal Minds and asked her (repeatedly as I recall) if he could get a role. Eventually he got one and delivered as Flynn perhaps the most terrifying unsub in the history of the show to date.
As someone who's exposure to him had been in the vein of Home Alone 2, C & C, Muppets and Ferngully where his portrayal had always had considerable amount of whimsy sillyness to it, seeing him take a seriously terrifying role like that was a wonderful experience.
Finale of season 5 and start of season 6 for those wishing to see for themselves (highly recommend).
I know most folks think of other films, but his performance in Ridley Scott's Legend as the grumble-cackling lust driven red-faced demon is a core memory for me. Grew up watching and admiring that film and especially Mr. Curry's portrayal of that character so many times. Because of him.
I was horrified that after his stroke they kept rolling him out in a wheelchair to perform for fandom nerds.
Guy should have been allowed to live the rest of his life in dignity quietly, tending to his garden, not tap dancing for 40+ year old adults still obsessed with "The Time Warp".
Maybe. I don't have enough context, but maybe that's what he wanted to do? Whatever you may think about it, I'm pretty convinced Ozzy wanted to go out with a big concert. Nobody had to push him to do it.
Even if he did... he was in bad shape and it must have been physically taxing.
The thought of him feeling obligated to be on stage in front of a room of wide-eyed adult children is particularly sad. This is more a commentary on his fans than Tim himself.
>"Guy should have been allowed to live the rest of his life in dignity quietly, tending to his garden, not tap dancing for 40+ year old adults still obsessed with "The Time Warp"."
You dont become Tim Curry unless you live for the attention. I highly doubt it was against his will. Shatner is still out there doing the theater circuit right now at nearly 100. Those generations in general (Silents and GIs) just had the mindset of "I'll stop working when I'm dead". It was the later Boomers really that latched onto the concept of retirement.
So your contention is that he would have rather spent the last 14 years of his life alone and quiet, rather than getting out there to have fun and be with people who love him, just because the was left-side paralyzed?
For me, his best work was Muppet Treasure Island. I'm glad I watched this BTS video with him: I had no idea he had a stroke in 2012 and hasn't acted since.
In the 1970s, a bunch of us would have marathon sessions playing this newfangled game called "Dungeons and Dragons." It was a box set then, AD&D was yet to come. We played in a games club on Yonge Street in Toronto, and just down the street as the kind of sleazy movie theatre that played "Swedish Naturist" movies and any other porn or porn-adjacent films they could get away with.
On Saturdays, we would play until about 11:45, lock the club up, and go to the theatre, where they would show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. It was semi-wild. A few people would be there in costume, and lots of people would shout out the most famous lines.
I enjoyed it, and ended up making a minor contribution to the atmosphere: I started brining a water pistol along, and when there was rain in the movie, I'd fire it upwards, waving it randomly so other patrons would get a little sprinkle.
Some of the modern criticism of it is rather harsh. The complaints about predatory tropes, and lack of consent miss the whole point.
It is an outlandish piece of fiction, mixed with satire. It's just ment to be ridiculous and fun.
It's why people turned the whole midnight showing into an event. You either got what it was, and went to laugh and have a good time or you were just too stiff and didn't get it. The whole scene was great for suburban queer and gay kids who might not have had another outlet or gathering place.
I was lucky to have experienced it in the 80's and 90's in a few states. The relative homogeny of the crowed across states and venues was shocking. It was always a great way to "find your people" when you went somewhere new.
This still happens with full shadow-casts and everything. Look around, and look to bigger cities if you're living somewhere out of the way. If there isn't a troupe near you that does this regularly, you may have more luck closer to Halloween.
I spent more Friday and Saturday nights at the Tivoli in St. Louis at RHPS showings in my teen years than I can count. Quite literally, I lost track somewhere around 80 showings. (Not all at the Tivoli, but most.)
The first time I went to see it I was 16, I think, and being able to shout at the screen, throw toast and rice, generally just be loud and roudy as a teen, was fantastic.
Finally took my daughter (she's 20) to see it about some months ago during an anniversary screening... I got shushed by somebody two rows ahead for yelling a few lines. Nobody in the theatre knew about audience participation. Still fairly bummed about that. She'll probably never get the full audience participation experience, and that's sad.
RHPS was not my introduction to Tim Curry, though: Clue was. But I didn't put the two together until seeing Clue again after seeing RHPS a few times.
The first time I ever saw Rocky Horror was in a public screening during university, some friends dressed up and as I had no idea what I'd been invited to I was trying to work out why everyone was wearing these big coats
Then we hit the theater and the coats came off and I was trying to work out what the hell I'd got myself into
I'd seen Tim Curry before in Home Alone 2, but seeing him as Frank-N-Furter, strutting his stuff on the screen, that was iconic
There’s a small cinema in Paris that still screens 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' once a month; at certain times of the year, there’s even a troupe of amateur actors.
When I went to see it, it was a joyful shambles, with rice, water, ad-libbed lines, and drag queens surfing the audience.
His voice has a huge impact on so many forms of media from video games, movies, tv shows and radio. I'll miss him. I've been missing him since he couldn't use his distinct voice for many years. Miss him more that he is no longer with us.
Yeah, when you realize this decade and the next, pretty much everyone you grew up whose entertainment you consumed in the 60s-80s, who was an adult then, is coming up... it's a sobering thought.
"Baby Boom + Life Expectancy..." I dread at the idea that some startup is probably in stealth mode, ready to "disrupt funerals" by the end of the year.
(Also, I dread the fact that I know a few boomers that I would actually like to stick around for while...)
I wonder if it even gets that far. He's so obsessed with the limelight that his (alleged, but very clear) health scare for a week drove headlines.
There's also the factor of Vance. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to pull off the 25th, but perhaps he's waiting for popularity to completely erode. He's certainly not going to be a serious candidate for 2028 without an absolute miracle of a turnaround in the next 2 years.
Vance trying to pull off a 25th would be political suicide.
Trump's fan base is absolutely rabid. Anybody trying to exercise the 25th Amendment would be treated as a betrayal of the party and country, and I'm sure some morons would try to claim it's treason (because they don't know what defines treason).
> but perhaps he's waiting for popularity to completely erode
Never gonna happen. There's nothing that'll reduce Trump's popularity with MAGA.
> He's certainly not going to be a serious candidate for 2028 without an absolute miracle of a turnaround in the next 2 years.
Vance has an utter lack of charisma. Neither the good form of charisma, nor the anti-charisma that Trump carries that riles up a base. He's boring and doesn't know how to talk to people. Just look at the 2024 video when he visited a donut shop while campaigning with Trump.
I like to think that because Vance is utterly incapable of getting people excited, he would get devoured in a general election, but the DNC really knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I'm terrified that the DNC is going to push Gavin Newsom in 2028.
If 2028 ends up Vance vs Newsom, we'll probably see the lowest voter turnout in decades.
Permanent 25th Amendment is impossible. It requires two thirds of both houses which is more than impeachment. Amendment probably shouldn't have provided a mechanism and just required impeachment. Trump would have to be unable to respond or persuaded to resign.
Yes, I am. If they are not fair and free, we have very different and much more serious set of problems than Democrats vs. Republicans. I hope we do not get to that point.
One of my favourite roles I've seen him in was as Trymon in the TV version of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Sq1Nr58hM
Honestly, even though that's the only thing I've seen Tim Curry in, it's so strong that he has a fond place in my heart just for that performance. Dude knew how ridiculous it was and was having fun, which is a delight. It's hilarious to me watching him try to keep from cracking up in that scene.
i forgot about it.
RIP Tim Curry.
i went to the symphony last year to see the movie Clue. the symphony played the music while the movie played on the big screen above. i’d never seen the movie, he was as amazing as everything else i’d seen him in.
Imagine my delight at seeing him on a packed London Tube one morning on my way to work. He asked to get by and I said something like "Just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right?" waiting for him to burst into song with the whole carriage joining in..
He just scowled and pushed past - still made my day though :)
https://www.hardcoregaming101.net/the-rocky-horror-show/
The 'Wilderness Girls' scene in Loaded Weapon 1 will forever be in my heart and laughter; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRN2spEualo
I rewatch it every few years, still love it.
"No meaning yes!?"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-oral-history-of-tim-curry...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/movies/muppet-treasure-is...
> Curry emphatically denied that interpretation. “I saw the Muppets as actors with distinct personalities,” he said. “It’s astonishing how quickly you see them as people.”
> In this video, we look at why Tim Curry’s Long John Silver works so well in Muppet Treasure Island, not just because he’s funny, theatrical, and completely larger than life, but because he understood the real magic of acting with the Muppets.
> There’s a popular idea that Michael Caine treated the Muppets like real actors, while Tim Curry treated himself like a fellow Muppet. But according to Curry himself, that isn’t quite right. He didn’t see Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo, or the rest of the Muppet crew as props or puppets. He treated them as fully formed characters with their own personalities, timing, and emotional lives. That may be the key to why his performance feels so alive.
> This video essay explores Tim Curry’s casting as Long John Silver, his love for the Muppets, his larger-than-life theatrical style, and the behind-the-scenes energy of Muppet Treasure Island. We also look at how the Muppet performers stayed in character, how Curry approached the songs and comedy, why the “A Professional Pirate” number works so well, and how one surprisingly heartfelt scene with Jim Hawkins revealed a more vulnerable side of Curry’s acting.
It doesn't say anything about how Tim Curry viewed the Muppets, but rather about how Tim Curry treated himself. It stands to reason that if he was, say, method acting as an actual Muppet, that he too would view the other Muppets as fellow actors with their own identities etc.
I can definitely see how someone could interpret it that way, assuming it's implying that he didn't see them as real, but I think that's an incorrect assumption and the quoted observation wasn't actually implying that at all.
Herkermer Homolka in Congo (1995)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112715/
RIP
https://clip.cafe/muppet-treasure-island-1996/but-its-not-hi...
(aside: Someone needs to upload a better-quality version of this to YouTube)
RIP Long John Silver!
He was an icon. It’s said you can tell a lot about a person by from where they recognize him.
Absolutely nobody else could make the word "elocution" sound so luxuriously redolent of desire.
If you see it next to the Rocky Horror Picture Show (edit: and as pennywise in IT!) it really displays how wide the interpreting skill of the actor were.
(Sorry, just noticed the older sibling comment said the same thing)
Sam Neil - Gone. Sean Connery - Gone. Tim Curry - (now)Gone.
All the big names from my childhood are starting to die... Damn.
As someone who's exposure to him had been in the vein of Home Alone 2, C & C, Muppets and Ferngully where his portrayal had always had considerable amount of whimsy sillyness to it, seeing him take a seriously terrifying role like that was a wonderful experience.
Finale of season 5 and start of season 6 for those wishing to see for themselves (highly recommend).
Thanks for the reminder!
I was always happy to hear his voice work in shows as well. Mighty Max and Super Samurai Syber Squad being among my favorite.
He’s fantastic in Clue as well.
Less beloved was the 90's sci-show "Earth 2" (also featuring Clancy Brown).
Also his voice role as Hexxus in Fern Gully!
Guy should have been allowed to live the rest of his life in dignity quietly, tending to his garden, not tap dancing for 40+ year old adults still obsessed with "The Time Warp".
Even if he did... he was in bad shape and it must have been physically taxing.
The thought of him feeling obligated to be on stage in front of a room of wide-eyed adult children is particularly sad. This is more a commentary on his fans than Tim himself.
Others here are saying, like Ozzy, he might have been doing what he wanted to do.
To quote the poet, Dylan Thomas,
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
You dont become Tim Curry unless you live for the attention. I highly doubt it was against his will. Shatner is still out there doing the theater circuit right now at nearly 100. Those generations in general (Silents and GIs) just had the mindset of "I'll stop working when I'm dead". It was the later Boomers really that latched onto the concept of retirement.
https://old.reddit.com/r/timcurry/comments/1tzyqt6/sf_clue_q...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzU8f4HaQw0
On Saturdays, we would play until about 11:45, lock the club up, and go to the theatre, where they would show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. It was semi-wild. A few people would be there in costume, and lots of people would shout out the most famous lines.
I enjoyed it, and ended up making a minor contribution to the atmosphere: I started brining a water pistol along, and when there was rain in the movie, I'd fire it upwards, waving it randomly so other patrons would get a little sprinkle.
People liked that kind of thing!
Some of the modern criticism of it is rather harsh. The complaints about predatory tropes, and lack of consent miss the whole point.
It is an outlandish piece of fiction, mixed with satire. It's just ment to be ridiculous and fun.
It's why people turned the whole midnight showing into an event. You either got what it was, and went to laugh and have a good time or you were just too stiff and didn't get it. The whole scene was great for suburban queer and gay kids who might not have had another outlet or gathering place.
I was lucky to have experienced it in the 80's and 90's in a few states. The relative homogeny of the crowed across states and venues was shocking. It was always a great way to "find your people" when you went somewhere new.
The first time I went to see it I was 16, I think, and being able to shout at the screen, throw toast and rice, generally just be loud and roudy as a teen, was fantastic.
Finally took my daughter (she's 20) to see it about some months ago during an anniversary screening... I got shushed by somebody two rows ahead for yelling a few lines. Nobody in the theatre knew about audience participation. Still fairly bummed about that. She'll probably never get the full audience participation experience, and that's sad.
RHPS was not my introduction to Tim Curry, though: Clue was. But I didn't put the two together until seeing Clue again after seeing RHPS a few times.
Then we hit the theater and the coats came off and I was trying to work out what the hell I'd got myself into
I'd seen Tim Curry before in Home Alone 2, but seeing him as Frank-N-Furter, strutting his stuff on the screen, that was iconic
What a show, that man knew how to commit
When I went to see it, it was a joyful shambles, with rice, water, ad-libbed lines, and drag queens surfing the audience.
(Also, I dread the fact that I know a few boomers that I would actually like to stick around for while...)
RIP Tim.
We're already seeing a test of the playbook with a certain turtle-like man.
There's also the factor of Vance. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to pull off the 25th, but perhaps he's waiting for popularity to completely erode. He's certainly not going to be a serious candidate for 2028 without an absolute miracle of a turnaround in the next 2 years.
Trump's fan base is absolutely rabid. Anybody trying to exercise the 25th Amendment would be treated as a betrayal of the party and country, and I'm sure some morons would try to claim it's treason (because they don't know what defines treason).
> but perhaps he's waiting for popularity to completely erode
Never gonna happen. There's nothing that'll reduce Trump's popularity with MAGA.
> He's certainly not going to be a serious candidate for 2028 without an absolute miracle of a turnaround in the next 2 years.
Vance has an utter lack of charisma. Neither the good form of charisma, nor the anti-charisma that Trump carries that riles up a base. He's boring and doesn't know how to talk to people. Just look at the 2024 video when he visited a donut shop while campaigning with Trump.
I like to think that because Vance is utterly incapable of getting people excited, he would get devoured in a general election, but the DNC really knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I'm terrified that the DNC is going to push Gavin Newsom in 2028.
If 2028 ends up Vance vs Newsom, we'll probably see the lowest voter turnout in decades.