Tim Curry on sexuality, surviving a stroke, and 50 years of fame: “Being risky is the best way to live.”

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In dark mode, various color variables are adjusted to darker shades for better readability and visual comfort.”It’s hard not to view this as a kind of final chapter,” Tim Curry remarks about his memoir, Vagabond. The fact that he wrote it at all comes as a surprise. Curry has always valued his privacy—my attempts to convince him to do an interview with the Guardian started over five years ago. Now 79, he still prefers to look ahead, which explains how he has achieved so much in his career.

The actor is known for his boundless energy. While filming the murder mystery comedy Clue, where he plays the frantic, sharp-tongued butler Wadsworth, he exerted himself so much that a nurse on set warned him he was at risk of a heart attack after checking his blood pressure.

His most iconic screen role remains his 1975 breakthrough as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the puzzling sex symbol in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But he has portrayed many unforgettable villains; for me, he will always be Pennywise the clown from the terrifying 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It. His stage performances in The Pirates of Penzance in 1982 and Spamalot in 2007 both earned Olivier award nominations. Additionally, he has voiced numerous characters, winning over a generation of millennials as explorer Nigel Thornberry in the cartoon classic The Wild Thornberrys.

In every role, Curry exudes heart and a zest for life, his grin teetering between menace and joy. Has any actor ever had more fun than he did playing Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island?

“I’m very aware that I’m lucky,” he says. “I’m actually amazed at how ambitious I’ve been. I never thought of myself as ambitious at all.”

Comedy has always been important to him as a performer, but more recently, it has also become a “coping mechanism.” In 2012, at age 67, he suffered a severe stroke that left his left side paralyzed. He is thankful that he didn’t lose his ability to speak. Making others laugh clearly brings him joy—his conversation is filled with sharp remarks, punchlines, and impressive voice work. How did the stroke change his outlook on life? “The day before my stroke, I smoked three packs of Marlboro Reds,” he shares. “I won’t be doing that again!”

Between the stroke and the pandemic, Curry had what he calls “an appalling amount of time to reflect.” The result is Vagabond, a witty and engaging page-turner full of life. Readers will be drawn in by his career stories and stay for the celebrity encounters: impromptu dinners with David Bowie after Rocky Horror Show performances; sharing bowls of cocaine at Studio 54 with Truman Capote and Andy Warhol (Carly Simon, who was also there, did not join in); and a hilariously snippy run-in with Donald Trump on the set of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (more on that later, don’t worry).

There are some omissions. He writes that matters of the heart or bedroom “are—respectfully—none of your fucking business.”

“I tried to be as absolutely truthful as possible,” he says. “I couldn’t see the point of not being.”Doing it differently was really energizing, I must say. It was fantastic, partly because of the excitement of a new environment.

As Pennywise the clown in the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s It, I’ve always aimed to make my villains entertaining, which adds to their menace.

In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), I recall Ivana Trump knocking on my door and asking if I was happy with my room. I absolutely hated it.

I admit I’m a showoff. As a child, I felt I had talent and was just waiting to be discovered, which sounds a bit conceited now. My father served as a chaplain in the Royal Navy, and my earliest memories are of singing in the church choir. The music was wonderful—the Methodist hymn book has some fantastic tunes—and I loved the admiration my singing brought me.

I was a precocious mimic. My mother, who had lived in the US, would entertain me with a strong New York accent. I quickly learned to imitate it and developed my own range of accents to make her laugh. After perfecting the voice of a local grocer, I’d sneak out, knock on the door, and flatter her from behind it, which annoyed her when she realized she’d been tricked.

Born in 1946 in Cheshire, I lived a nomadic life as a military child. Every year and a half, my family—my mother, father, and beloved older sister Judy—would move to a new British seaside town before settling in Plymouth when I was 11. This constant moving made it hard to form lasting friendships, but I look back on it fondly. It gave me a lifelong love for the coast, especially the British sea—the colder, the better—and prepared me for a life of travel without deep attachments, which inspired my book’s title, Vagabond. I never felt lonely at home because there was so much personality in the house that you had to fight for attention.

I adored my father, a kind and selfless Christian man who wanted to do good and never forced his beliefs on us.

Was I ever tempted to follow him into the ministry? Not at all. Did any of his principles influence me? I’m not particularly religious, but I respect faith deeply. Methodist values of living simply have stayed with me, and I’ve tried to uphold them.

When I was 11, my father had a stroke and later died from pneumonia in the hospital. It felt overly dramatic, and I didn’t know how to react, sensing it would shape me profoundly. He was only 49—so young—and I struggled to accept it. I tried to support my mother and be the man of the house, but it wasn’t convincing, and no one bought it.

After his death, my mother became irritable and volatile, sometimes cruel—she found it funny that my sister Judy dated, as she didn’t think Judy was pretty—and she could be frightening. I’m cautious discussing this; in my first draft, I mentioned an incident where she came at me with a knife in the kitchen. I believe she may have been bipolar because she could explode suddenly. I channeled my fear of her into my roles: her rage inspired Pennywise and Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers, and as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, I thought of her when I emerged…After moving to New York, Curry briefly pursued a career as a rock star. Around that time, he began using cocaine. When asked if it’s fair to call him a hedonist, he replied, “Back in the day, yes. I’m not very larky now!” At the peak of his usage, he took cocaine “most evenings, I would say, because I wasn’t Mr. Snorterama during the day. I had stuff to get done. It was part of living in New York in the 80s.” Does he miss those days? “I don’t, because Manhattan is a grim little island. Way too much energy. And you have to participate.”

Curry released three albums quickly, with his second, “Fearless,” reaching number 53 on the charts, and his single “I Do the Rock” making it onto the Billboard 100. However, his record contract ended and wasn’t renewed. His cocaine use also slowed down. He writes that he had no trouble quitting, though he’d occasionally have a bump here and there, which he’d immediately regret. “I think there was some kind of minor epiphany, but I don’t remember what it was. But it obviously couldn’t go on,” he writes in his book “Vagabond.” Later, alcohol became a crutch, and although he went to rehab to control it, he says he never felt like an alcoholic. “I don’t think I ever quite qualified, really.”

In the 80s, Curry began playing iconic villains, starting with The Lord of Darkness in Ridley Scott’s “Legend.” He believes he makes a good villain for two reasons: first, he inherited his father’s empathy and could identify with even the most despicable characters. Second, “I’ve always tried to make them amusing, which gives them a bit more edge,” he says. “It’s like people being drawn to the scene of a car crash. They’re drawn to extreme behavior… I think people secretly long to be a bit more explosive or act out much more.”

Curry had to learn to shake off these villain roles after filming. “Eventually I got better and better at it because I had to have a life. You’ve got to dump it somewhere. When you’ve been acting as a character for a whole day, it’s quite difficult to shake them off, particularly if you throw yourself completely into it, which I tried to do.”

The 90s were a fruitful period for him. While playing the concierge of the Plaza Hotel in “Home Alone 2,” he met Donald Trump, who owned the hotel. At the time, Trump and his girlfriend Marla Maples were frequently in the headlines. “He was very anxious to find Chris Columbus, the director… He said, ‘I’ve got to get Marla to meet Chris Columbus because she’s a brilliant actress.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m sure.'” Curry also found himself lying to Ivana Trump about her interior design taste after moving into the hotel during filming. “She knocked on my door and said, ‘Are you happy in your room? Do you like the way it looks?’ And I loathed it, actually.”

When asked which film he remembers most fondly, there’s no contest. “I would love to work with the Muppets again,” he says. “The great thing is that the Muppeteers themselves, if they have their puppet on their hand, they only talk to you as the character. I love that.” Curry is aware of the popular trivia that he was so good in the film because he considered himself a fellow Muppet, but he categorically denies that’s how he sees it.

His favorite Muppet is Miss Piggy. “I ad-libbed a line because Piggy and I were supposed to have had some kind of affair long ago, and I said, [he slips into his Devonshire pirate accent] ‘Well, I’ll tell you,””Jim, once you’ve had pork, you never go back!” That line didn’t make the final cut.

In 1999, Curry’s mother passed away at 80. Their relationship had been rocky during his childhood, but he came to understand her better, recognizing that she herself had been neglected and unloved by her parents. In the end, they reconciled. After moving to the US, Curry would visit his mother whenever he returned to the UK to see his sister. When she was in her 60s, they began a tradition of staying at a luxurious hotel on Plymouth Hoe, with Curry inviting her friends along. “I think we finally accepted things as they were,” he reflects.

Two years later, Curry faced what he calls the greatest tragedy of his life: his beloved sister died from a brain tumor at 60. He remains close to his two nieces and nephew. He tries not to dwell on these losses, saying, “I don’t try to organize my life too much. I take it one step at a time.”

Curry suffered a stroke during a massage. The masseur noticed something was wrong and, ignoring Curry’s protests that he was fine, called an ambulance—a decision that saved his life. At the hospital, he underwent emergency brain surgery. “It was strange because my father had a stroke and died soon after. I knew I had to force myself to relax and just go with the flow.” When asked if he thought about his father during recovery, he replied, “I did think about how he handled it. He was determined not to let us see him changed.”

After the stroke, Curry couldn’t speak for several weeks. Over many months and through rehabilitation, he learned to adapt. It was also discovered that he has an abdominal aneurysm. Today, he uses a wheelchair, still flashes his iconic grin, and speaks clearly, though he sometimes needs a moment to collect his thoughts. He has a team of three caregivers. “They take incredibly good care of me and make me laugh.” He still can’t use his left arm, which he’s nicknamed Teddy, and he has a shorter fuse. The most challenging aspect for him is the loss of short-term memory. “I can’t remember a damn thing. I’m not sure I could do theater again.”

Curry has never feared death. He writes that he doesn’t believe in heaven or hell but would be curious to visit either. When asked if he worries about another stroke, he says, “I probably should. It could happen anytime. I wouldn’t want to go through it again because it makes you so damn vulnerable.”

Curry plans to continue acting when possible; in 2016, he played a criminologist in the remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He has also started attending fan conventions, where he sees his life’s work reflected in the audience’s costumes, which he finds humbling and overwhelming.

Has he had the career he wanted? “I’ve had the opportunities,” he says, “and I’m still showing up. I think that’s what you have to do—keep showing up.”

Did he prioritize his career above all else? “No, no. Life comes first, really. But I’ll sure as hell make sure I do a part well. I actually work very hard. I have to. Some people can just waltz in and deliver.”

What message would he want people to take from his life story? After a long pause, he finally says, “He took it on the chin,” and that famous grin spreads across his face.

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Photography credits include main imagery of Tim Curry from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in 1975, credited to CinetextBildarchiv/20th Century Fox/Allstar, and a 1974 photo from Evening Standard/Getty Images.

Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about Tim Curry inspired by his career health and personal philosophy

On Sexuality Iconic Roles

Q Was Tim Currys character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show meant to be queer
A Yes Dr FrankNFurter is a pansexual genderbending sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania and the role is a celebrated icon of queer cinema

Q How did playing such a risky sexualized role so early in his career affect him
A While it typecast him for a while Curry has always expressed pride in the role It didnt ruin his career but instead made him a cult legend showcasing his fearlessness as an actor

Q Is Tim Curry gay in real life
A Tim Curry has always kept his personal life very private and has never publicly discussed his sexuality

On Surviving a Stroke

Q What happened to Tim Curry
A In 2012 Tim Curry suffered a major stroke which required significant medical care and a long period of rehabilitation

Q How is his health now after the stroke
A He uses a wheelchair and his mobility and speech have been affected but he has made public appearances and continues to do voice acting work demonstrating his resilience

Q Did the stroke end his acting career
A No While he can no longer perform in physically demanding roles he has continued a successful career in voice acting lending his iconic voice to animated shows and audiobooks

On 50 Years of Fame His Philosophy

Q What is Tim Curry best known for
A He is a legendary actor known for a huge range of roles but most famously for Dr FrankNFurter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show Pennywise the Clown in It and his voice work in shows like Over the Garden Wall

Q What did he mean by Being risky is the best way to live
A This reflects his career choices He consistently took on bold unconventional and often villainous roles that other actors might have avoided which is what made his performances so memorable and unique

Q Can you give an example of a risky role he took
A Absolutely Playing a terrifying clown in the

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