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Remembering Tim Curry: The Man who Made it Sexy to be Weird

By. Davalyn Baker

 

On August 25, 2026, Tim Curry passed away. With the news coming a day after Dolly Parton’s death, the only way to describe how I feel about this is that it honestly just sucks.

Tim Curry’s legacy spans decades in multiple genres. Each character he crafted, no matter how minor the role, stole the scene and always kept the audience entertained …or terrified. Someone on X (Twitter) tweeted you could tell who a person was just by their first encounter with a Tim Curry role. Did It play a crucial part into my eventual love for horror? Truthfully, I am unsure but Curry’s role as Pennywise the Dancing Clown made its mark in my life.

So yes, I am one of the kids that became a fan of Tim Curry because he made “weird” kids like me feel seen. He was never boxed in or typecast as an actor, showing a creative and colorful body of work.

My introduction, as I stated, to Tim Curry was his role as the main antagonist in the ABC made-for-television adaptation of Stephen King’s It. Curry owns the miniseries and takes it by the reigns as Pennywise, an other-worldly entity that terrorizes a group of children in the small, fictional town of Derry, Maine. Pennywise took on the shape of a clown because he wanted to attract children and at the time, clowns were beloved characters and seen as mostly harmless. Contrary to what many think, Stephen King did not get influence from serial killer John Wayne Gacy but based Pennywise off trolls from fairy tales and somehow knowing that makes Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise onscreen even more frightening. Curry had previously worked in Ridley Scott’s Legend, as Darkness, a character that you were either terrified of or turned on by – depending on your interests.

His experience with prosthetics was so negative that when he did sign on for the role of Pennywise, he wanted to carry the role without prosthetics and was reluctant to take on the role if prosthetics would come into play. Even though he still spent more time in his make-up chair than his costars, the director, Tommy Lee Wallace and special effects artist, Bart J. Mixon, decided to pull back on the use of many prosthetics, making it Curry’s responsibility to be as expressive as possible to ignite fright in the audience.

Curry admitted in his autobiography, Vagabond, that while he didn’t particularly love or hate the performance, he respected Stephen King’s craft and creation of the character. Like the rest of (most of) us, Curry wasn’t a fan of clowns. As an adult who viewed the movie the day of his passing, I think his dislike of clowns makes the performance far more sinister. The opening scene where Pennywise hides behind hanging white sheets on a clothesline, attempting to capture a little girl gives me chills to this day. His smile turns into a sinister scowl within seconds and truthfully, not many other things will ever be that scary.

My first time seeing him out of the make-up was as Miss Hannigan’s quick-tempered, scamming baby brother, Rooster, in John Huston’s film adaptation of Annie. Somehow, I was still scared of him but intrigued all the same. He was playing a villain again, terrorizing a child again but he did look good while he did it!

I spoke with my sister about his passing, my mom, and my niece and nephew – all of us affected deeply by the news. And we all loved him for different roles; my niece is absolutely enamored with him as Wadsworth in Clue while my nephew became a huge fan after seeing him in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

For lots of fans, they were introduced to Tim Curry as the vampy Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was much older than the terrified six-year-old who watched It when I watched him dancing around in garters while simultaneously terrorizing and seducing square couple, Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon). For those of you reading this ode to Mr. Curry, I encourage you to watch this movie. Nothing I could ever say would do his role as Frank-N-Furter justice. No person was ever made for a role than Tim Curry has as Dr. Frank, the sultry, cannibalistic, messy, enthralling, hedonistic antagonist of the film.

The role encourages many people, especially the queer kids and misfits, to indulge in self-expression – “Don’t dream it. Be it.” And what could be more encouraging than that? With the success of the film, Curry expressed a fear that he would be typecast because of how influential and popular Dr. Frank-N-Furter was.

We've spent time with Curry's most iconic role before — revisit our own 50-year retrospective on THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW for a deeper dive into why "Don't Dream It, Be It" still resonates.

Ironically, I’d watched him in so many films before I even knew of Dr. Frank’s origins.

And of course, there was his portrayal of three characters in Tales from the Crypt, a role that earned him an Emmy nomination in one of the best episodes of the series titled, “Death of Some Salesman.” It’s one of Curry’s best performances and you can even watch the episode on Shudder or Tubi.

Tim Curry’s contribution to pop culture was on another level. His fear of being typecast as Dr. Frank faltered immediately. He’s put on many faces, but nothing will compare to his love for the arts and encouragement in the importance of community. It feels bittersweet to be typing this about him, but to know that he lived such a full life and made his mark on the world gives me ease. More of us should be like Tim Curry, supporting the arts and understanding that it’s completely okay to be nervous to try that new thing. As long as you just be yourself while doing it.

Though he’s made his exit from earth, the night sky just became a lot more sparkly with Tim’s bright star joining it.