Farewell to Tim Curry, the British actor made famous by “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and his role as Pennywise in It, who died yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 80.
The cause of death was not immediately released, but Variety reports that Curry had suffered from several health problems in the past after suffering a stroke in 2012.
A versatile singer, actor, and voice actor, Curry won a Daytime Emmy Award and received Tony and Olivier Award nominations for several other roles, but his career remained inextricably linked to the diabolical Dr. Frank-N-Furter in composer and playwright Richard O'Brien's transgressive musical and the role of the evil clown Pennywise in It.
His portrayal of Mozart in the 1981 New York production of Amadeus earned him a Tony nomination, while his role as the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1982 production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane earned him a Laurence Olivier nomination. Curry later returned to the Broadway stage as the hard-drinking, braggart Alan Swann in the musical version of My Favorite Year. He then played King Arthur in the New York and London productions of Monty Python's Spamalot, a musical adaptation—directed by Mike Nichols—of the Arthurian satirical spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Occasionally appearing in dramatic roles in films such as The Hunt for Red October (1990) and The Three Musketeers (1993), comedy proved his most congenial medium. Other notable performances include Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Balls in the Can (1993).
(Unioneonline)
