Tim Curry Biography
Summary
"Timothy James Curry" (born April 19 1946) is an English actor, singer, and composer, perhaps best known for his role as mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975). He also had a career as a rock musician. His list of roles is extensive, in both TV and movies, live-action and voice-acting for animated features, and it is notable that he almost always plays a villain of one kind or another. He currently resides in Los Angeles, although for the past year or so he has been in Chicago, New York City, and most recently London, with the current Broadway hit "Monty Python's Spamalot".
Early life
Curry's father, James, was a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain, and his mother, Patricia, was a school secretary. Curry was born and raised in Warrington and attended Lymm High School until his father's death in 1958, when Curry relocated to South London. He attended Kingswood School, and although he didn't enjoy the religious aspect of the Methodist school, he did enjoy the vast number of hymns available. There, he developed into a talented boy soprano. When his voice broke, his music teacher encouraged him to develop a mature singing voice. He cites Billie Holiday as his major musical influence, saying that he 'listened to nothing but her records for two years' during a period of teenage depression.
Acting career
"Rocky Horror"
Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical "Hair" in 1968. Here he first met Richard O'Brien, who went on to create his next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show".
Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, but the character evolved into the sly, very upper-class English mad scientist and transvestite that carried over to the movie version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and made Curry both a star and a cult figure. He continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles, and New York until 1975.
For many years, Curry was reluctant to talk about "Rocky Horror", feeling that it was a trend that had gone too far and had distracted attention away from his later roles. A VH1 Pop-Up Video Halloween special even quoted Curry as saying he grew so unnerved by all the fan attention after this role that he became 'chubby and plain' in order to escape it. However, in recent years he has been much more open about discussing the show and now recognises it as a 'rite of passage' for many young people.
Theatre
Shortly after the failure of "Rocky Horror Show" on Broadway, Curry was back on Broadway with Tom Stoppard's "Travesties", which ran in London and New York from 1975 to 1976. "Travesties" was a huge Broadway hit which won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play), and Curry's performance as the famous dadaist Tristan Tzara received spectacular reviews.
In 1981, Curry formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show "Amadeus", playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was nominated for his first Tony Award (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for this role, but lost out to his co-star Sir Ian McKellen, who played Antonio Salieri.
In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in a London stage version of "The Pirates of Penzance" opposite George Cole. The role is one of his favourites even now.
In the mid 1980s, Curry performed in 'The Rivals' (Bob Acres 1983) and in several plays with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including the 'Threepenny Opera' (MacHeath 1986), 'Dalliance' (Theodore 1986), and 'Love For Love' (Tattle 1985).
In 1993, Curry played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical "My Favorite Year", earning him his second Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.
In late 2004, Curry began his role of King Arthur in "Spamalot" in Chicago. The show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005. His part in the show got him his third and most recent Tony Award nomination, again for Best Actor in a Musical.
Curry went on to star as King Arthur in London's West End at the Palace Theatre, where Spamalot opened on October 16 2006. Tim's final performance was on January 6 2007 and returned to his home in Los Angeles, a few days later. On January 18 2007, Curry was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award as the Best Actor in a Musical; this was one of seven nominations earned by the London production of Spamalot, including Best New Musical. On February 9 2007, it was announced that Curry also won the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award (getting 39% of the votes cast by over 12,000 theatregoers) as Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as King Arthur.
Movies and television
Curry's television and movie credits are long and varied. Amongst his most notable roles are:
'Madman' in a telefilm of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" (1972)
Glen in "Schmoedipus", a BBC "Play for Today" TV episode written by "Dennis Potter" and directed by Barry Davis (1974)
Dr. Frank-N-Furter "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975)
Jerome K. Jerome in the BBC's TV movie "Three Men in a Boat" (1975)
Has-been rock star Stevie Streeter in "Rock Follies of '77" (1977)
"William Shakespeare" in a 6-hour British TV series "William Shakepeare: His Life & Times" directed by Mark Cullingham, Robert Knights, Peter Wood (1977)
Disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia in "Times Square" (1980)
One-time guest host of "Saturday Night Live" (1981); In one memorable sketch, Curry and Meat Loaf were running their own "Rocky Horror" memorabilia store.
Larry Gormley in BBC's TV comedy "Blue Money" (1982)
Rooster Hannigan in the musical "Annie" (1982)
Lord of Darkness in the film "Legend" (1985)(he is nearly unrecognizable in the role, as he was covered in heavy special-effects makeup, and his voice was lowered electronically.)
Wadsworth the Butler in the film "Clue" (1985)
The Grand Wizard in "The Worst Witch" (1986)
Pentecostal televangelist in "Pass the Ammo" (1988)
Rapacious record producer Winston Newquay in "Wiseguy" (1989)
The Prosecutor in "The Wall Live in Berlin" (1990)
Pennywise the Dancing Clown in "It" (1990)
Dr. Petrov in "The Hunt for Red October" (1990)
Dr. Thornton Poole the elocutionist in the film "Oscar" (1991)
The Plaza Hotel concierge, Mr. Hector, in "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992)
Mr. Jigsaw in the film "Loaded Weapon 1' (1993)
Cardinal Richelieu in Disney's "The Three Musketeers" (1993)
Corrupt scientist Farley Claymore in "The Shadow" (1994)
Gaal in "Earth 2" (1994)
Herkermer Homolka in "Congo" (1995)
Long John Silver in "Muppet Treasure Island" (1996)
The ships' purser who looted cabins and raped a passenger as the Titanic sank, in the Titanic miniseries, (1996)
'Poet Man' in "Lexx" (1997) in the episode 'Supernova'
"Gomez Addams" in "Addams Family Reunion" (1998)
'The Sorcerer' (voice only) in The Net (1998-1999)
'Jezebel Jack' in "Pirates of the Plain" (1999) from the creators of Ernest.
'Edward Whatsett St. John' in Jackie's Back! (1999)
Roger Corwin in "Charlie's Angels" (2000)
Felix in "Four Dogs Playing Poker" (2000)
Damien Kemp in 'Sorted' (2000)
Professor Oldman in "Scary Movie 2" (2001)
Harley Dune in "Wolf Girl" (sometimes listed as "Blood Moon" (2001)
Vet Matthew Hope in 'Ritual' from the Tales from the Crypt (2001)
Thurman Rice in "Kinsey" (2004)
Nigel St. Nigel in 'Psych' second season episode 'American Duos' (2007)
He has said that he considers his most memorable performance to be Frank-N-Furter. However, he has stated that he considers his favorite role to be Long John Silver in "Muppet Treasure Island" because of his chance to work with Miss Piggy. Curry has also said another of his favorite roles was Dr. Poole in Oscar.
Voice acting
From the early 1990s onward, Curry has been also become known as a highly-acclaimed voice artist. Notable roles include:
Captain James T. Hook in Fox's "Peter Pan and the Pirates" TV series (1990)
Konk in Hanna-Barbera's TV series "Pirates of Dark Water" (1990)
M.A.L., evil sentient computer program and assistant to Dr. Blight in Captain Planet and the Planeteers" (1990-1993)
Sir Gawain in "The Legend of Prince Valiant" (1991-1994)
Taurus Bulba in "Darkwing Duck" (1991)
Hexxus in "FernGully: The Last Rainforest" (1992)
King Acorn on various episodes of "Sonic the Hedgehog" (1993)
Gabriel Knight in the computer games "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers" (1993) and "Gabriel Knight III: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned" (1999)
Skullmaster in "Mighty Max" (1993)
Maelstrom in "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?" (1994)
Kilokahn in "Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad" (1994)
George Herbert Walker 'King' Chicken on "Duckman" (1994-1997)
Dr. Anton Sevarius in "Gargoyles" (1994)
Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster (1994) adventure game as Dr. Frankestein
Pretorius in the cartoon series "The Mask: The Animated Series" (1995)
Count Nefarious in the video game "Toonstruck" (1995)
Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
Dr. Mystico in 'Freakazoid' (1995)
Zimbo in "AAAHH!!! Real Monsters" (1996)
Lazlo Gigahurtz in "Bruno the Kid" (1996)
Lord Dragaunus in Disney's "The Mighty Ducks" TV Series (1996)
Trader Slick in the "Jumanji" animated TV series (1996)
Prince Lotor and King Alfor in Voltron: The Third Dimension (1996)
Forté in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas"
The frog in the 'Teen Angel' episode, 'Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog' (1997)
Nigel Thornberry in "The Wild Thornberrys" TV series and subsequent movies (1998)
Ben Ravencroft in "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost" (1999)
Stratos, the God of Air in the video game Sacrifice (2000)
Slagar the Slaver in the TV miniseries "Mattimeo: A Tale of Redwall", based on the book by Brian Jacques
The Mouse King in "Barbie in the Nutcracker" (2001)
The Cat King in the English dubbed version of "Neko no ongaeshi" (aka "The Cat Returns", (2002))
Professor Finbarr Calamitous in "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" (2002)
Hazzaka in the first episode of "K10C: Kids' Ten Commandments"
General Von Talon in "Valiant" (2005)
Narrator of the "Lemony Snicket" audio books
Narrator of the "Abhorsen Trilogy" audio books
Prince in "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" (2006)
Yegor in "Fly Me to the Moon" (2007)
The Skull in Bartok the Magnificent
Curry was cast as the Joker in Warner Brothers' "Batman: The Animated Series", and even recorded several episodes worth of dialogue, but the producers felt his interpretation was too dark and frightening. They recast Mark Hamill in the role, who leavened the character's darkness with an unpredictable sense of humor. It's also been claimed that Curry was sacked because the voice he used to play the Joker was essentially the same he employed for Captain Hook and refused to change it.
At the end of 2002, Curry served as the narrator in a parody of 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' for Nickelodeon.
Curry was also cast as the voice of SIR (Simulated Intelligence Robotics) at Walt Disney World's 'Alien Encounter', which ran from 1995 to 2003.
Musical career
Aside from his performances on various soundtrack records, Curry has had some success as a solo musical artist. In 1978, A&M Records released Curry's debut solo album, "Read My Lips". The album featured an eclectic range of songs (mostly covers) performed in diverse genre. Highlights of the album are a reggae version of the Beatles song 'I Will', a rendition of 'Wake Nicodemus' with full bagpipe backing, and an original bar-room ballad, 'Alan'.
The following year, Curry released his second and most successful album, "Fearless". The LP was more rock-oriented than "Read My Lips" and mostly featured original songs rather than cover versions. The record included Curry's only US charting songs: 'I Do the Rock' and 'Paradise Garage'.
Curry's third and final album, "Simplicity", was released in 1981, again by A&M Records. This record, which did not sell as well as the previous offerings, combined both original songs and cover versions, and is commonly held to be the weakest of his three albums.
In 1989, A&M released "The Best of Tim Curry" on CD and cassette, featuring songs from his albums (including a live version of 'Alan') and a previously unreleased song, a live cover version of Bob Dylan's 'Simple Twist of Fate'.
Curry toured America with his band through the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. He also performed in Roger Waters's (of Pink Floyd fame) 1990 production of The Wall in Berlin, as the prosecutor.
Curry's voice also appeared on The Clash's Sandinista!, on the track 'Sound of Sinners'.
Awards and nominations
1981 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Play (for playing the title role in 'Amadeus')
1991 Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series (Captain James T. Hook in 'Peter Pan and the Pirates')
1993 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing Alan Swann in 'My Favorite Year')
1994 Emmy Award nomination, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (for a trio of roles in "Tales from the Crypt", in an episode entitled 'Death of Some Salesmen')
1996 Razzie Award nomination, Worst Supporting Actor (for playing Herkermer Homolka in the movie 'Congo')
1998 Annie Award nomination, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production (for playing Forté in 'Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas')
2005 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing King Arthur in 'Monty Python's Spamalot')
2007 Laurence Olivier Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (King Arthur in 'Monty Python's Spamalot')
2007 Whatsonstage Theatregoers' Choice Award as Best Actor in a Musical (King Arthur in 'Monty Python's Spamalot')
External links
(The Complete Tim Curry) - Fan site
("Fresh Air" interview with Tim Curry)
(Tim Curry "Downstage Center" interview at American Theatre Wing)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Tim Curry.
