Information about Tim Curry

Tim Curry
Tim Curry at the 47th Emmy Awards Governor's Ball, photo by Alan Light
Birth name	Timothy James Curry
Born	March 19 1946 (1946--) (age 61) Grappenhall, Warrington, Lancashire, England
Occupation	actor, singer, composer
Years active	1968—present

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, though for the past year or so 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.^[1] 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 though 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

Main article: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

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 in 1975-1976. "Travesties" was a huge Broadway hit which won two Tony Awards (Best Performance by an Actor for John Wood and Best Comedy), the New York Drama Critics Circle Award (Best Play) and Curry's performance as the famous dadaist Tristan Tzara received spectacular reviews.

In 1981, he 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, he 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, he 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.

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."

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 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 (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)
• "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 (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)
• (1994) adventure game as Dr. Frankestein
• Pretorius in the cartoon 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
• 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 (2002)
• Hazzaka in the first episode of
• General Von Talon in Valiant (2005)
• Narrator of the Lemony Snicket audio books
• Narrator of the Abhorsen Trilogy audio books
• Prince in (2006)
• Yegor in Fly Me to the Moon (2007)
• The Skull in Bartok the Magnificent.

Curry was cast as the Joker in Warner Brothers' , 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, he 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 1995-2003.

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 "")
• 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")

Preceded by None (he was the original actor)	Actor Playing King Arthur in Spamalot Broadway March 17, 2005 (Opening) - December 19, 2005	Succeeded by Simon Russell Beale December 21, 2005 - April 26, 2006
Preceded by None (he was the original actor)	Actor Playing King Arthur in Spamalot West End September 30, 2006 (Opened October 16, 2006) - January 6, 2007	Succeeded by Simon Russell Beale January 24, 2007 - xxx, 2007

References

External links

• Tim Curry at the Internet Movie Database
• Tim Curry at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tim Curry at TV.com
• Tim Curry at RockyMusic.org
• The Complete Tim Curry - Fan site
• Fresh Air interview with Tim Curry
• Tim Curry Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing

Persondata
NAME	Curry, Tim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Curry, Timothy James
SHORT DESCRIPTION	actor, singer, composer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 19, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH	Grappenhall, Warrington, Cheshire, England, UK
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

|240px|Grappenhall (