Tim Curry, a multitalented and award-winning stage and screen actor most famous for his villainous roles, has passed away at the age of 80. His legacy is one that involves everything from comedy to musicals to drama to fantasy to horror to history. But no matter what the role he played, whether he was the star or the villain or a secondary character, Tim Curry always provided an unforgettable and unique performance.
I have seen a number of movies with Tim Curry, along with TV appearances (especially in Psych) and clips of his stage performances, such as his hilarious and rousing portrayal of the Pirate King in the comic opera Pirates of Penzance below. He even played William Shakespeare, that defining figure of English-language entertainment. While I have not seen all the movies that many critics most associate with Curry — I fully intend never to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show — I have seen him take on an astonishingly wide range of roles. Many actors, especially of the present era, seem to play the same role over and over, with a recycled set of expressions, tones, and character traits. Whether as the butler in Clue or as Long John Silver on Treasure Island, Curry brought artistry and life-like chemistry to his performances. And Tim Curry never played any two roles the same.
One of his most iconic drama roles was as Dr. Yevgeni Petrov, Soviet medical officer, in The Hunt for Red October. Petrov is one of the only officers not in on the secret that the sub's commanding officer Ramius, played by Sean Connery, is planning to defect to America and turn the Red October over to the U.S. Petrov's belief in his commanding officer’s loyalty proves a key part of the plot, especially in the scene below, where Petrov must believe the sub is to be scuttled instead of handed over to Americans.
One movie that did not attract a lot of audience approval or critical acclaim but is worth watching just for Curry's performance is The Secret of Moonacre. The script is not particularly impressive (though the visuals are beautiful), and the replacement of the intense Christianity in the book with the weird nature worship of the film was a disappointing choice. But in his dual role as Coeur de Noir and Sir William de Noir (the former's descendant), Curry does a masterful job. It is one of the only times I have ever watched a movie in which the villain essentially turns out to be one of the "good guys" and thought the change was believable. And that is largely due to how Curry carried off the parts.
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In The Three Musketeers, Curry was the smarmy, ambitious, backstabbing Cardinal Richelieu:
I've never been a Home Alone fan, but Curry was my favorite part of the second film:
The main Tim Curry character that came to mind as soon as I heard of his death, however, was Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. That's rather surprising, actually, because I didn't grow up watching Muppet movies; I watched only a few Disney Muppet productions with my dad over the last couple of years. Many talented actors have portrayed the famous pirate from Robert Louis Stevenson's genre-defining classic, including Orson Welles, Robert Newton, Wallace Beery, Brian Murray, and Charlton Heston. But ever since I saw Curry in the role, he has been inextricably linked in my mind with Long John.
The character of Long John Silver is actually quite complex. There is no doubt that he is a murderous, thieving scoundrel—Stevenson, unlike many writers today, did not see pirates as heroes. Yet Silver does act for part of the story as a sort of father figure to Jim. Film adaptations like the Muppet one have often played up Silver's soft spot for Jim more than the book does. But Silver's mentorship of Jim is a fascinating character anomaly that Curry portrayed quite convincingly, which is particularly admirable given that he was acting while surrounded by weird-looking puppets.
Rest in peace, Tim Curry.
