Tim Curry, the classically trained British actor and singer best known for playing the flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the legendary midnight movie classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show has died at 80. According to TMZ, the Emmy-winning star of stage and screen (who suffered a major stroke in 2012) died on Tuesday night (Aug. 25) at his Toluca Lake, Los Angeles home, with no known cause of death at press time.
Curry’s passing was confirmed to Billboard by Grand Central Publishing, which published his memoir, Vagabond: A Memoir, in 2025, as well as his longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz, who described the versatile actor known for his “inimitable, flamboyant characters and colorful stage performances. She said Curry’s greatest legacy to his friends and family was his “curious, expansive mind and generous, gentle heart, both of which remained open and filled with anticipation until his final breath.”
Though he would go on to perform in dozens of other plays and movies, it was his role in Rocky Horror that made Curry an international star, with audiences transfixed by his show-stopping, bump-and-grind introductory number, “Sweet Transvestite,” as well as the cabaret-like “I Can Make You a Man” and the emotional ballad “I’m Going Home,” among others. He famously reprised the role in the musical film adaptation in 1975, with that movie becoming a staple of interactive midnight screenings in which fans dressed up as his character (and others), and came armed with props mimicking the action on screen.
