Tim Curry

About

Tim Curry is a washed-rind cheese: pungent, theatrical, deeply rewarding once you commit to the taste. His career has been built on playing the thing in the room that makes everyone uncomfortable, and he never apologizes for the strangeness. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is where to start. Frank-N-Furter arrives in a burst of lipstick and heels, all seduction and menace at once, and Curry plays him without a shred of camp, which is precisely why the camp works. Clue gave him Wadsworth, a butler who steals a mystery comedy by staying composed while chaos boils around him, every line timed to land just after you stop expecting it. Legend asked him to be pure evil in a red suit, and he made Darkness feel like a philosophy rather than a costume. It proved the darkness was always there, not a layer on top. His voice work carries the same rind. Pennywise in It is grotesque and genuinely frightening, a creature that speaks in riddles and hunger. Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island is a swaggering pirate who plays with the Muppets like they are toys. Sir Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys is an explorer built entirely from enthusiasm and vowels, utterly committed to absurdity. Curry never tries to soften the edges. He leans into the pungency and trusts that the flavour will hold. A washed-rind cheese ages better than it looks, and every year Curry's work sits richer on the plate.