A stroke 13 years ago left Tim Curry partially paralyzed, but it hasn't diminished his memorable laugh, or the mystique about him. In 50 years on the screen, he's played so many types – campy, comical, menacingly sinister – yet his most inscrutable role is still Tim Curry.
And being an enigma is exactly how he wants it. "I think it's important," he said. "I encourage it."
Though Curry is out with a new memoir, "Vagabond" (to be published Tuesday by Grand Central), he's keeping some secrets to himself. "One of the keys is to not encourage an identity, I think, and I've tried to nurse that," he said. "I have protected that, and continue to."
Grand Central Publishing
Born a military brat in Hong Kong, Curry grew up moving from place to place. As a boy, he worshipped his dad, a chaplain in the British Royal Navy. The last time he saw his father, when he was 10, was when his dad had a stroke: "And as they were about to take him into the ambulance, he said, 'Look after your mother.'"
After his father's death, there was no one to buffer the impact of his mother, who would be kind one minute, then cruel the next. "I actually think now that she was probably bipolar, because she could turn on a dime," Curry said.
Acting offered him an escape from his mother's moods – and access to so different many different lives. He said what excited him about acting was "the freedom of being somebody else, and I think that I was (like everybody else) drawn to the idea of fame probably, although I came to kind of rather despise it."
His first nibble of notoriety came from his first paid gig, in the 1969 London production of "Hair." It was a big deal, but nothing in comparison to what came next: "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," first on stage, then the movie. He joked that he got the part of Dr. Frank-N-Furter because of his legs. It was a transformative performance, for Curry, and the audience.
Curry says what made the role unique was his power: "He gave a lot of teenagers permission to be different, and I'm very happy that he did have that power."
"Rocky Horror" earned Curry stardom. It did not earn praise, or even respect, from his mother. She lived well into her son's success, but "she didn't make much of it," Curry said. "She was scared of it."
Why? "Well, she said to me later that, 'I thought your head was gonna grow too big.' She would have preferred me to operate under the radar!"
He laughed: "I never did. I didn't give a s*** about the radar!"
I asked, "When Frank is committing his particularly most heinous act in 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' [killing Eddie with an axe], was some of that directed at your mom maybe?"
"It's not directed at her, it's just channeling," Curry replied.
"Rocky Horror" set up Curry to play some memorable screen villains – under a mountain of prosthetics in "Legend," opposite Tom Cruise; as Pennywise in the Stephen King thriller "It"; and as Carol Burnett's scheming and duplicitous brother in "Annie." "I loved her to bits," Curry said of Burnett.
And don't forget the hotel concierge in "Home Alone 2," and the manipulative butler in "Clue."
Clockwise from top left: Tim Curry in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"; "Legend"; with Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett in "Annie"; with Madeline Kahn and Michael McKean in "Clue"; "It"; and "The Three Musketeers."
20th Century Fox; Universal; Columbia; Paramount; ABC; Walt Disney Pictures
But then came 2012, and the moment that changed Tim Curry's life. "It was so strange," he said. "I was actually having a massage, and the guy who was giving me a massage said, 'I'm worried about you. I think we should call a doctor.' I felt fine. I had no symptoms that I was aware of. I wasn't in pain."
But he was taken to the hospital, where he learned he'd had a stroke. "I though immediately of my dad. So, I was scared," he said.
He then underwent invasive brain surgery, and had rehabilitation to learn how to speak again. "That was very weird," he said. "I hated not being able to speak."
He also has paralysis on his left side. "My face kind of went sideways," he said.
Actor Tim Curry.
CBS News
I asked, "From reading the book, and from talking to the people here who care about you, there hasn't been a lot – I'm sure there was some self-pity, but it doesn't sound like there was a lot?"
"I don't think so," Curry said. "I hope not, because I don't admire self-pity much. Another legacy from my mother, I guess. It's one that I'm thankful for: Why are you so important that we have to pity you?"
Now 79, he's reached an age he didn't think he'd see back in 2012. Today, he's not remotely afraid of dying – though exactly what he means remains, fittingly, a mystery.
"I don't fear death," he said. "I try to avoid it, as I think we all do! But I suspect that in the end, I will welcome it."
And what does that mean? "Well, I think it may be very comforting to go bye-bye – and I want to earn it!" he laughed.
WEB EXTRA: Extended interview - Tim Curry (Video)
READ AN EXCERPT: "Vagabond: A Memoir" by Tim Curry
For more info:
- "Vagabond: A Memoir" by Tim Curry (Grand Central), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available October 21 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
- timcurry.co.uk
Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
