Tim Curry

By: Adrienne Crew
April 19, 2011

Cheshire, England’s TIM CURRY (born 1946) came to fame in 1973 by originating the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter (a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania) on the stage and in the screen adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A composer, singer, dancer, actor, author and voice-over artist, Curry excels in so many areas that he became a transmedia personality before the word’s invention. There he is smoldering as the Lord of Darkness in the 1985 film Legend; camping it up as Wadsworth the butler in the pioneering interactive film version of the game Clue; terrorizing children of all ages as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the horror movie It; voicing villainous characters in video games such as “Wing Commander III” and on kid TV shows like Voltron: The Third Dimension; greeting visitors in a pre-recorded voice over on futuristic rides in Disney World; or tearing up the stage as King Arthur in the Broadway hit Monty Python’s Spamalot. Curry, who won a Tony for originating the role of Mozart in Amadeus on Broadway, also performed in Roger Water’s 1990 production of The Wall in Berlin and contributed vocals to the “Sound of Sinners” track on The Clash’s album, Sandinista. The only world Curry has yet to conquer is the Star Wars universe. But Christopher Lee can’t last forever; when the time comes, Curry will be more than ready to enliven George Lucas’s faraway galaxy.

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On his or her birthday, HiLobrow irregularly pays tribute to one of our high-, low-, no-, or hilobrow heroes. Also born this date: Stanley Fish.

READ MORE about members of the Blank Generation (1944-53).

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HiLo Heroes, Movies