Tim Curry has died
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/movies/muppet-treasure-is...
> Curry emphatically denied that interpretation. “I saw the Muppets as actors with distinct personalities,” he said. “It’s astonishing how quickly you see them as people.”
> In this video, we look at why Tim Curry’s Long John Silver works so well in Muppet Treasure Island, not just because he’s funny, theatrical, and completely larger than life, but because he understood the real magic of acting with the Muppets.
> There’s a popular idea that Michael Caine treated the Muppets like real actors, while Tim Curry treated himself like a fellow Muppet. But according to Curry himself, that isn’t quite right. He didn’t see Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo, or the rest of the Muppet crew as props or puppets. He treated them as fully formed characters with their own personalities, timing, and emotional lives. That may be the key to why his performance feels so alive.
> This video essay explores Tim Curry’s casting as Long John Silver, his love for the Muppets, his larger-than-life theatrical style, and the behind-the-scenes energy of Muppet Treasure Island. We also look at how the Muppet performers stayed in character, how Curry approached the songs and comedy, why the “A Professional Pirate” number works so well, and how one surprisingly heartfelt scene with Jim Hawkins revealed a more vulnerable side of Curry’s acting.
It doesn't say anything about how Tim Curry viewed the Muppets, but rather about how Tim Curry treated himself. It stands to reason that if he was, say, method acting as an actual Muppet, that he too would view the other Muppets as fellow actors with their own identities etc.
I can definitely see how someone could interpret it that way, assuming it's implying that he didn't see them as real, but I think that's an incorrect assumption and the quoted observation wasn't actually implying that at all.
Imagine my delight at seeing him on a packed London Tube one morning on my way to work. He asked to get by and I said something like "Just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right?" waiting for him to burst into song with the whole carriage joining in..
He just scowled and pushed past - still made my day though :)
Now I'm 42yrs old, and when my parents visit me, I watch Home Alone 2 with them. It has somewhat become a family tradition now.
Thank you Tim for such a memorable moments. Great actor!
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) - Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal Scene - https://youtu.be/h_bUcNjmuSk
Not sure how that happened though.
My daughter first watched HA when she was around 8. It’s one of her favourite movies. She generally doesn’t like movies or even cartoons, something about the tension they build. But HA she loves.
He was an icon. It’s said you can tell a lot about a person by from where they recognize him.
Absolutely nobody else could make the word "elocution" sound so luxuriously redolent of desire.
If you see it next to the Rocky Horror Picture Show (edit: and as pennywise in IT!) it really displays how wide the interpreting skill of the actor were.
(Sorry, just noticed the older sibling comment said the same thing)
Sam Neil - Gone. Sean Connery - Gone. Tim Curry - (now)Gone.
All the big names from my childhood are starting to die... Damn.
As someone who's exposure to him had been in the vein of Home Alone 2, C & C, Muppets and Ferngully where his portrayal had always had considerable amount of whimsy sillyness to it, seeing him take a seriously terrifying role like that was a wonderful experience.
Finale of season 5 and start of season 6 for those wishing to see for themselves (highly recommend).
Thanks for the reminder!
A family friend had a yellow ~73 Duster. Tim Curry autographed her hood in spray paint. This was back in the early Rocky Horror days - a live performance in NYC, I think. Everyone adored the signature.
ff to mid 80's: She is leaving work. She gets to her parking space and sees that her hood is just yellow; the autograph is gone.
She's staring in shock when the attendant walks up to her and says in a heavy Arabic accent: "I'm so sorry that happened to you. I scrubbed and I scrubbed all morning until I finally got it all off!" and is just beaming at her. Her shock hasn't let up any. She manages to squeak out a "Thank you" and leaves.
I was always happy to hear his voice work in shows as well. Mighty Max and Super Samurai Syber Squad being among my favorite.
He’s fantastic in Clue as well.
Less beloved was the 90's sci-show "Earth 2" (also featuring Clancy Brown).
Also his voice role as Hexxus in Fern Gully!
(Also, I dread the fact that I know a few boomers that I would actually like to stick around for while...)
RIP Tim.
We're already seeing a test of the playbook with a certain turtle-like man.
There's also the factor of Vance. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to pull off the 25th, but perhaps he's waiting for popularity to completely erode. He's certainly not going to be a serious candidate for 2028 without an absolute miracle of a turnaround in the next 2 years.
Trump's fan base is absolutely rabid. Anybody trying to exercise the 25th Amendment would be treated as a betrayal of the party and country, and I'm sure some morons would try to claim it's treason (because they don't know what defines treason).
> but perhaps he's waiting for popularity to completely erode
Never gonna happen. There's nothing that'll reduce Trump's popularity with MAGA.
> He's certainly not going to be a serious candidate for 2028 without an absolute miracle of a turnaround in the next 2 years.
Vance has an utter lack of charisma. Neither the good form of charisma, nor the anti-charisma that Trump carries that riles up a base. He's boring and doesn't know how to talk to people. Just look at the 2024 video when he visited a donut shop while campaigning with Trump.
I like to think that because Vance is utterly incapable of getting people excited, he would get devoured in a general election, but the DNC really knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I'm terrified that the DNC is going to push Gavin Newsom in 2028.
If 2028 ends up Vance vs Newsom, we'll probably see the lowest voter turnout in decades.
and given T-bone's history for saying and doing dumb shit AI hallucinations wouldn't even tip the scales
Honestly, if I could make it to 70 I'd say I lived a good life. getting to 80 and outliving my grandpa would be great.
Then I see people barely older than me, who felt like they were just getting started go out way way way too young... and that just terrifies me.
Till all are one.
One of my favourite roles I've seen him in was as Trymon in the TV version of Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-oral-history-of-tim-curry...
I rewatch it every few years, still love it.
"No meaning yes!?"
But then there aren't (m) any movies the end on the line "I am going to go home and sleep with my wife". Hard to go past that too.
Rest in peace, mister Curry (inconceivable that he wasn't knighted).
You can probably identify the age of every commenter in this thread based on the particular role that sits with them.
https://clip.cafe/muppet-treasure-island-1996/but-its-not-hi...
(aside: Someone needs to upload a better-quality version of this to YouTube)
RIP Long John Silver!
On Saturdays, we would play until about 11:45, lock the club up, and go to the theatre, where they would show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. It was semi-wild. A few people would be there in costume, and lots of people would shout out the most famous lines.
I enjoyed it, and ended up making a minor contribution to the atmosphere: I started brining a water pistol along, and when there was rain in the movie, I'd fire it upwards, waving it randomly so other patrons would get a little sprinkle.
People liked that kind of thing!
Some of the modern criticism of it is rather harsh. The complaints about predatory tropes, and lack of consent miss the whole point.
It is an outlandish piece of fiction, mixed with satire. It's just ment to be ridiculous and fun.
It's why people turned the whole midnight showing into an event. You either got what it was, and went to laugh and have a good time or you were just too stiff and didn't get it. The whole scene was great for suburban queer and gay kids who might not have had another outlet or gathering place.
I was lucky to have experienced it in the 80's and 90's in a few states. The relative homogeny of the crowed across states and venues was shocking. It was always a great way to "find your people" when you went somewhere new.
The first time I went to see it I was 16, I think, and being able to shout at the screen, throw toast and rice, generally just be loud and roudy as a teen, was fantastic.
Finally took my daughter (she's 20) to see it about some months ago during an anniversary screening... I got shushed by somebody two rows ahead for yelling a few lines. Nobody in the theatre knew about audience participation. Still fairly bummed about that. She'll probably never get the full audience participation experience, and that's sad.
RHPS was not my introduction to Tim Curry, though: Clue was. But I didn't put the two together until seeing Clue again after seeing RHPS a few times.
Then we hit the theater and the coats came off and I was trying to work out what the hell I'd got myself into
I'd seen Tim Curry before in Home Alone 2, but seeing him as Frank-N-Furter, strutting his stuff on the screen, that was iconic
What a show, that man knew how to commit
When I went to see it, it was a joyful shambles, with rice, water, ad-libbed lines, and drag queens surfing the audience.
Herkermer Homolka in Congo (1995)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112715/
RIP
The 'Wilderness Girls' scene in Loaded Weapon 1 will forever be in my heart and laughter; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRN2spEualo
It ran on W11 without too much trouble up until CD 3 started. There the whole game just seized up and refused to run. Weirdly no amount of uninstalling helped to get even earlier CDs running.
That being said it's a masterpiece, still, 30 years later.
It was absolutely formative for my later tastes in science fiction. For a while, I thought it was something from a fever dream until I found a DVD on eBay.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394935/
Now, the salesman guy was IMO the best actor in that episode, but Tim Curry played several roles, and played as the daughter, which was absolutely hilarious. So if you can, watch that episode - Tim was a hilarious guy. I wonder who had the idea of him playing multiple roles (he was good in his other roles too, but playing the daughter was by far the funniest part).
I watched Rocky Horror what must have truly been upward of 1000 times :) Picking all the scenes apart, memorizing the movements and the lines.
I played Rocky, Eddie (Meatloaf), Brad, Janet, Dr. Scott. But I never got to play the legendary Frank.
To be honest, I don't think I could ever live up to it. There is a certain goofiness with all the other characters I loved to bring out and exaggerate -- But with Frank you had to embody Tim Curry. You can make it your own but there's still a root of him in all the depictions I've ever seen. The walk, the motions, the atmosphere of a demanding presence. It's all so distinctly Tim Curry :) I always loved seeing people fill the boots (well, the heels. Those heels are gigantic, if you've never looked at them closely!)
RIP Tim Curry. Thank you for everything you've done. All the joy you've brought into this world.
Some shadow cast RHPS memories, in tribute to our legend passing away.
1/ If you're doing a screen accurate show, you can play as Eddie and Dr. Scott :) It's a tight costume change but they're never on the screen at the same time. I always did both characters on those nights.
2/ Apparently the actor for Rocky had no idea what they were signing up for, and was super weirded out while filming. This was like the cast's entire favorite fun fact, and I don't have the heart to verify and ruin it. Because it certainly looks sort of true anyway if you take a closer look at him in the movie ;)
3/ The movie omits a single song from the broadway show. It is, of course, Brad's solo song. Which I have always found hilarious. Of course of all the songs, it's Brad's.
4/ After "Touch Me", Janet and Rocky have to stay hidden on stage almost totally naked in a tight prop space for the next scene to work right. It's a little thrilling seeing what you two can get away with, barely shielded from the audience and the cast :)
5/ Our regular Brad loved to "crowd surf" during the "don't dream it, be it" and... you know, it's very interesting doing that half naked with a boa!
6/ The floor show is the most stressful costume change. There's not enough time to do it yourself. We had people assigned and dedicated to the floor show costume change because it was so difficult to pull off. A full face of makeup, a whole new costume with fishnets, and a custom bedazzled corset!
7/ Dr. Scott's floor show change has it fairly easy in comparison. You can wear the fishnets for all of the show and just take off your pants :)
8/ Our main venue in SF was not set up for what we did. We didn't have a costume changing room; we had the trash room around the side. We laid towels over the trash cans and made our own little workstations, brought our own lighted mirrors, had to constantly whisper since the audience was literally right there at the door.
9/ My favorite all-time memory was caking the makeup on my face for floor show. I had these special spongey wedges I liked to do it with, and it was so meditative. You didn't have time to get it perfect, you had to slather it on and get up there. The feather boa, the cool night air touching my skin, the camaraderie of friends loving something together, laughing quietly and putting on a good show. None of it possible without Mr. Tim Curry.
It was only years later that I understood this to be a statement about all the corpse forward products produced by over-aggregated companies.
Whenever it seems like the product just doesn't do what you want, and charges too much for it, remember this paraphrase:
They didn't make it for YOU...
Honestly, even though that's the only thing I've seen Tim Curry in, it's so strong that he has a fond place in my heart just for that performance. Dude knew how ridiculous it was and was having fun, which is a delight. It's hilarious to me watching him try to keep from cracking up in that scene.
i forgot about it.
RIP Tim Curry.
i went to the symphony last year to see the movie Clue. the symphony played the music while the movie played on the big screen above. i’d never seen the movie, he was as amazing as everything else i’d seen him in.
RIP absolute legend.
RIP
[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49454496
[2]https://curry-combat-2.com/
Fast as AI turnaround indeed?
Top Movie Peak Performance by the great Tim Curry
It, was to me, surprisingly good for an AI slop project. Though Fable not suggesting the Doctor from Red October or Homolka from Congo in its initial roster is the biggest indication to me that we're far from general AI.
This happened to an acquaintance of mine. He had a pain in his neck, and went to a chiropractor. The chiropractor massaged his neck, which released a blot clot that went into his brain and gave him a stroke. His life afterwards was severely degraded. He was only in his 40s.
I'll never let a chiropractor touch me.
I'm not a doctor but I was an athlete and the default suggestion of "my neck/knee/legs/arms hurt" -> massage is standard common wisdom. Maybe an MD would have stalled for an ultrasound but then you have all of the insurance and delay issues.
A close friend who had an extremely aggressive breast cancer at 35 (and is given to natural cures etc etc) took up acupuncture as a secondary treatment. All well and good until the third session, when the acupuncture people tried to get her to drop out of chemo and radiotherapy to fully commit to their treatments. Alternative medicine as a term should be considered fraud and its more radical practitioners thrown in jail immediately.
Something along the lines of "If alternative medicine worked we would just call it medicine."
Medicine." —Tim Minchin
(The whole thing is worth rewatching)
...or possibly caused the issue: https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-paralyzed-chiropractor...
Yeah. Chiropractors are not doctors, whatever their degree mill happens to say.
I need actual physical therapy from someone with a credible degree in sports medicine. It's a relatively common muscular issue that I'm pretty confident can be handled with stretching and strengthening routines but nobody has suggested doing that so far.
This is not chiropractor specific:
> Arterial dissection is well known as a potential cause of stroke in young patients. Vertebral artery dissection occurs most commonly in the setting of minor trauma but has been seen in cases of cervical manipulation. With advances in at-home therapeutic modalities for neck pain came the advent of handheld massage guns. These massage guns have gained considerable popularity in recent years, but their safety for use in the cervical region has not been well studied.
After numerous visits to correct the orthotic problem, he referred me to another chiropractor who "specialized" in these kinds of things. That chiropractor's office smelled of incense and reminded me of a place I might use purchase a bong, four-hose houka, or Discwasher vinyl album cleaner.
He entered the "operatory" wearing a robe and proceeded to test my "neural strength" by having me create a loop with my thumb and index finger. His test involved trying to pull my fingers apart. He told me I was weak on the same side as the turned ankle. His solution was dietary and recommended a jar of yeast wafers. One a day while the ankle healed until finished.
Purchased them too.
In the meantime, I discovered an ancient remedy involving frozen water which I applied to the ankle with great effect. I also purchased a new pair of running shoes for a third of the price of an office visit and was able to continue running comfortably.
I have no idea why anyone ever does. It was invented before medical science was a thing by a guy with a 5th grade education and has been thoroughly debunked.
Guy should have been allowed to live the rest of his life in dignity quietly, tending to his garden, not tap dancing for 40+ year old adults still obsessed with "The Time Warp".
Even if he did... he was in bad shape and it must have been physically taxing.
The thought of him feeling obligated to be on stage in front of a room of wide-eyed adult children is particularly sad. This is more a commentary on his fans than Tim himself.
Others here are saying, like Ozzy, he might have been doing what he wanted to do.
To quote the poet, Dylan Thomas,
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
You dont become Tim Curry unless you live for the attention. I highly doubt it was against his will. Shatner is still out there doing the theater circuit right now at nearly 100. Those generations in general (Silents and GIs) just had the mindset of "I'll stop working when I'm dead". It was the later Boomers really that latched onto the concept of retirement.
https://old.reddit.com/r/timcurry/comments/1tzyqt6/sf_clue_q...