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The best Tim Curry movies and TV shows feature some of the most eclectic performances and releases of any actor's career. After studying acting in school, the British actor got his first full-time role in a musical when he joined the London cast of Hair in 1968. It was here that he met Richard O'Brien, who was writing the theater version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. After performing on the show in the theater setting, Curry then signed on to star in the same role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 film adaptation.
Considered one of the greatest cult movies of all time, The Rocky Horror Picture Show solidified Curry's role as a cult genre favorite actor, and he played into that for the rest of his career. On top of his continued work in theater productions, he also began to appear in some genre favorites, many of which received lackluster reviews but remained fan favorites, with titles like Clue, Stephen King's IT, and a scene-stealing turn in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Curry suffered a stroke in 2012, but he still lends his voice to animated features.
10 The Three Musketeers (1993)
Cardinal Richelieu
The Three Musketeers
Release Date November 11, 1993
Runtime 105 minutes
Director Stephen Herek
Writers David Loughery
Producers Joe Roth, Jon Avnet, Jordan Kerner
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Chris O'Donnell
D'Artagnan
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In 1993, Hollywood tried to revive The Three Musketeers with a group of the top young actors of that era. Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, and Oliver Platt played the titular trio, while Chris O'Donnell took on the role of the young D'Artagnan, a man wanting to join the Musketeers in their job of defending the King of France. Every movie needs a good villain, and Tim Curry took on that role as Cardinal Richelieu, a corrupt Cardinal running the Red Guards who wants to depose Louis XIII.
Critics bashed the movie when it was released, although it was a box office success, making $111 million on a $30 million budget. Most of the bad reviews complained that it seemed like it wanted to create a franchise more than it wanted to tell a story. While most critics trashed the film, there was a lot of praise for Tim Curry and his scene-stealing turn as the main villain of the picture.
9 Annie (1982)
Rooster Hannigan
Annie
Release Date June 18, 1982
Runtime 127 Minutes
Director John Huston
Writers Carol Sobieski, Thomas Meehan, Martin Charnin, Harold Gray
Producers Joe Layton
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Albert Finney
Daddy Warbucks
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Carol Burnett
Miss Hannigan
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Ann Reinking
Grace Farrell
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Tim Curry has a long career in theater, with performances in everything from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Art of Success to The Pirates of Penzance and Hair. There was one famous show that he never appeared in on the stage but took on a role when it came to the movies. In 1982, just seven years after his breakout in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Curry played Rooster Hannigan in the John Huston adaptation of Annie.
In Annie, Rooster is the younger brother of Miss Agatha "Aggy" Hannigan (Carol Burnett), joining her as a villain in the story. He is a con artist who is only out for himself and is someone who is a deadly threat to Annie and even his own sister. Curry referred to Rooster as a "cartoon villain," which is how he played him in the film, making him a standout in his performance (via Facebook). Annie received two Oscar nominations.
8 The Wild Thornberrys (1998-2004)
Nigel Thornberry
The Wild Thornberrys
Release Date 1998 - 2003
Network Nickelodeon
Directors Cathy Malkasian, Carol Millican, Sylvia Keulen, Becky Bristow, Steve Ressel, Mark Risley, Anthony Bell, Ron Noble, Frank Marino, Peter Avanzino, Dean Criswell, Joseph Scott, Max Martinez
Writers David Regal, Kate Boutilier, Joan Considine Johnson, Adam Beechen, Sheila M. Anthony, Peter Egan, Jill Gorey, Sarah Jane Cunningham, David Rosenberg, Monica Piper, Barbara Herndon, Eleah Horwitz, Ed Scharlach, Eva Almos, Tom Stern, Peter Hunziker, Robin Riordan, Arnold Margolin, Gail Barrick, Scott Gray, Mady Julian, Leslie Rasmussen, Bob Daily, Mark Palmer
Cast
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Alexandra Boyd
Stella / Maid (voice)
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Danny Cooksey
Wanuug (voice)
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David Ogden Stiers
Karroo (voice)
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Donal Gibson
Park Worker (voice)
Tim Curry has a long career as a voice actor in animated movies and television shows. He has lent his voice to some very popular shows over the years, including Voltron, Johnny Bravo, and Phineas and Ferb. However, the show that sits at the top of the list for his voice work is the Nickelodeon series The Wild Thornberrys. In this popular series, Curry voices Sir Nigel Archibald Thornberry, the father of Eliza (Lacey Chabert), Debbie (Danielle Harris), and Donnie (Flea).
The Wild Thornberrys ran from 1998 to 2004 and tells the story of a family of documentary filmmakers who are known for televised wildlife studies. The series was both funny and educational, as the Thornberry family traveled the globe and encountered animals and terrain everywhere. The animated series won several awards over its run, and Curry returned to the voice role for two movies — The Wild Thorberrys Movie and Rugrats Go Wild. Curry was involved with every episode of the series.
7 Legend (1986)
Darkness
Legend
Release Date August 28, 1985
Runtime 94 minutes
Writers William Hjortsberg
Producers Arnon Milchan
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David Bennent
Honeythorn Gump
Tim Curry took on a villain role in the Ridley Scott dark fantasy epic Legend. In this movie, a hero named Jack is a pure being who has to stop the Lord of Darkness from covering the world with eternal night. Curry plays Darkness in Legend, and the movie opens with him sending a goblin named Blix to kill several unicorns and bring him their horns for him to put his plan into motion. However, he soon finds himself faced with the pure forest child Jack, played by a young Tom Cruise.
Critics gave the movie mostly mixed to negative reviews, with praise going to the immense set pieces but saying that the story itself is weighed down by its dark nature. However, while critics were not satisfied with the story of Dark Fairies, most praised Tim Curry for his over-the-top, scene-stealing performance as Darkness. The movie was a box office failure, but it has become a cult classic, especially after Scott released his Director's Cut in 2002 with a slightly different ending to the story.
6 Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
Long John Silver
Muppet Treasure Island
Release Date February 16, 1996
Runtime 100 Minutes
Director Brian Henson
Writers Kirk R. Thatcher, Jerry Juhl, James V. Hart, Robert Louis Stevenson
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Billy Connolly
Billy Bones
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There has never been a terrible Muppets movie, and one of the more impressive endeavors was Muppet Treasure Island. This film took the Muppets and threw them into the world of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. This was a similar plan of action to the previous movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and while Muppet Treasure Island was not as good as that movie, it was still a very entertaining release for the fans of the franchise. Tim Curry was the villain here, playing Long John Silver.
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The pirates are mostly a human cast, with Curry as Long John Silver, Kevin Bishop as Jim Hawkins, Billy Connolly as Billy Bones, and Jennifer Saunders as Mrs. Sarah Bluberidge. Brian Henson directed the film, and Henson regulars Steve Whiutmire and Frank Oz were both on board for this movie. The movie received mostly positive reviews, with praise for the fun retelling of a familiar story and Tim Curry's performance once again stealing the show.
5 Criminal Minds (2010)
Billy Flynn
It is rare that an actor can take on a guest role in a long-running procedural series and end up as a stand-out for the entire series. However, that is what happened in 2010 when Curry joined the cast of Criminal Minds as one of the unsub killers. This would be one of Curry's final live-action roles before his stroke, and he was properly terrifying in his role as Billy Flynn. Known as "The Prince of Darkness," Flynn was a serial rapist who turned into a serial-turned-spree killer, and he had roles in seasons five and six of Criminal Minds.
His first appearance was in "Our Darkest Hour," the season 5 finale, and the team needed to capture him in the season 6 premiere, "The Longest Night." Billy Flynn was inspired by real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez (although the BAU actually name-dropped Ramirez when discussing The Prince of Darkness). The frightening thing is that he killed people for over 26 years before the BAU caught onto him and stopped him. It was one of Curry's most terrifying performances of his career.
4 Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)
Concierge
Tim Curry proved how great he was anytime he appeared on the screen when he stole scenes in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — even without ever getting an actual character name. His character name was simply listed as "Concierge" in the credits, although his name in the movie was Mr. Hector. He was the concierge of the hotel that Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) went to stay at when he accidentally flew into New York City while his parents were flying to Chicago.
Curry's concierge was not an antagonist in the film, but he was at odds with Kevin because he knew something was wrong with the child being there and his parents never seeming to be around. However, Kevin ended up setting traps and pranking him just like he does the villainous burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), but with obviously less dangerous attacks. The film received terrible reviews, but it has since been reappraised in a more favorable light, and actors like Curry are a big part of that.
3 It (1990)
Pennywise The Dancing Clown / It
One of Tim Curry's most recognizable roles of his career came in the 1990 miniseries IT, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. That is mostly because Curry took on the role of the monstrous villain in the film, known as both IT and Pennywise the Dancing Clown. IT was an alien monster who fed on children, while Pennywise was the clown that he morphed into to help him trick children into coming into his lair. When Hollywood remade IT as a movie, the comparisons to Curry's performance ran rampant.
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The television miniseries ran for two episodes and saw the Losers Club of children fight to stop Pennywise in 1960, and then the now-grown adults had to return to finish him off in 1990. The cast included mostly TV stars, with names like Harry Anderson, John Ritter, and Richard Thomas, but most people only remember Curry's portrayal of the clown, something that has terrified people of all ages over the three decades since the TV miniseries first hit ABC.
2 Clue (1985)
Wadsworth
Clue
Release Date December 13, 1985
Runtime 94 minutes
Director Jonathan Lynn
Writers John Landis, Jonathan Lynn, Anthony E. Pratt
One movie that Tim Curry appeared in that was panned by critics, only to later become an underappreciated cult classic, is the big-screen adaptation of the board game Clue. The film brings the famous board game characters to the big screen, with Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, and more. The story is a murder mystery similar to those of Agatha Christie, but the wildcard here is the butler, Wadsworth, played brilliantly by Tim Curry.
This movie remains known for its unique ending. There was not one ending but three. These were also the days before DVDs and alternate endings. Instead, the studio released all three Clue endings in different screenings across the country. There was no telling which ending a viewer would see depending on which theater they went to. Wadsworth played into all three endings (twice as a hero and once as a villain). The film was a flop, and critics panned it, but it has become a cult classic and has a 72% Rotten Tomatoes score.
1 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Dr. Frank N. Furter
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
7/10
Release Date August 15, 1975
Runtime 100 minutes
Director Jim Sharman
Writers Richard O'Brien, Jim Sharman
Franchise(s) The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The movie that made Tim Curry a star was also the first movie he ever appeared in. Curry originated the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the London theatrical version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. When the stage show was adapted into a movie, he reprised the role there and was a standout in the film. Dr. Frank-N-Furter is an alien transvestite scientist who wants to create the perfect man (named Rocky Horror). However, when two travelers stop for help, things get out of control.
The film had a great cast, with Susan Sarandon and Brad Majors as the travelers and Meat Loaf in a great role as Eddie, a former delivery boy who rose from the dead. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the longest-running theatrical movie in history and still has midnight screenings where fans take part in the performance from the audience. Tim Curry has been in several great movies and TV shows, but he will forever be known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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