The irreplaceable, irrepressible Tim Curry
I've been a fan of Tim Curry for years. An actor, singer, and voice actor, he's appeared on stage and screen in a huge variety of shows, plays, and films. He first came to my attention in such kid-friendly fare as the film adaptation of the hit Broadway show Annie, and as the deliciously villainous Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers. As I got older, I discovered how far his range truly stretched with such iconic roles as Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Pennywise the Clown in the Stephen King miniseries It. (And, of course, one of my favorite Curry roles is his appearance as the Moriarty-inspired character of Dale Biederbeck in the TV series Monk.)
Despite having such a wide range -- from comedic roles to the dramatic, from period pieces to horror, from voice acting to musicals -- one of the things that Curry brings to every role is precisely why I think he has so many fans: his sense of fun. Curry is clearly an actor who loves what he does, and in every role, no matter what it is, that enjoyment and high good humor is shining through. There are many actors who I'm a fan of, but Tim Curry might be the one who's the most consistently fun.
So in honor of his upcoming birthday (April 19), let's take a look at five of his most memorable roles:
Starting life in 1973 as a London musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was quickly adapted into a film that was released two years later. The movie musical was Curry's first major film role -- appropriate, since he'd originated the role in London during the play's premiere.
A musical send-up of the science fiction and horror B movies of the 50s and 60s, this cult classic features Curry in the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter. This nearly-indescribable musical focuses on a newly-engaged couple who leave their broken-down car and walk down the road to a castle owned by Dr. Frank N. Furter, only to get caught up in all manner of increasingly bizarre and wild hijinks. The best way to describe it, I think, is simply to say: you gotta watch it for yourself.
Strangeness aside, this cult classic nonetheless features one of Curry's most iconic roles. And the film's effects on pop culture are decidedly far-reaching: the movie has remained in theaters to this day. Don't forget to check out the soundtrack!
-- Clue
You wouldn't expect a movie based on a boardgame to become a cult classic in its own right -- until you've seen Clue, anyway. This murder mystery story is very much a spoof of the mystery genre, and a comedy in its own right, starring such actors as Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and Tim Curry as the butler, Wadsworth.
Borrowing heavily from Agatha Christie's classic And Then There Were None, the film draws together six strangers who are invited to a secluded mansion. They're promptly given code names by the butler (of the "Professor Plum" and "Colonel Mustard" variety, natch), before the reason for their invitation becomes clear: all six of them are being blackmailed by their host, Mr. Boddy. (Get it?) When Mr. Boddy turns up murdered, the culprit has to be one of the guests -- but who? Antics ensue as the guests (with Wadsworth's help) try to figure out the guilty party.
Since "the butler did it" is such a staple of murder mysteries, you might expect Curry's dry, droll Wadsworth to be the culprit -- but, well, it actually depends. There are three different solutions to the mystery, and, when the movie was first released to theaters, how you saw the ending was determined by what theater you happened to see the film in. (The DVD release features all three versions.)
Tim Curry as a pirate in a movie starring the Muppets? Yes, please! This Muppet-ified version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island stars Tim Curry in the role of the peg-legged sea cook Long John Silver -- alongside Kermit the Frog as Captain Smollett, Fozzie Bear as Squire Trelawney, and Miss Piggy as Benjamina Gunn.
This family-friendly musical manages to be both a delightful Muppets spoof and also a fairly faithful adaptation of the original novel (well, more or less). Like most Muppets movies, the film's a fun romp for kids while also having plenty of humor for the adults in the audience (Gonzo and Rizzo find a copy of Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy in Billy Bones's sea chest).
The cartoony, off-beat humor and fun make this classic Muppets fare. But the story's also got heart, in the paternal friendship that forms between Long John Silver and the orphaned Jim Hawkins (played by Kevin Bishop).
-- Spamalot
We've talked about Spamalot before -- the Eric Idle-penned musical adapted from the Monty Python cult classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When the show premiered on Broadway in 2005, the production starred Curry in the role of King Arthur.
I got to see Spamalot when it toured to Pittsburgh several years ago, but, alas, Curry was no longer playing the role of Arthur. Luckily for all of us who missed out, the original Broadway cast recording is available on CD. Curry shines as the devoted, often slightly-exasperated King of Camelot who just wants to find the Grail and get back to Camelot -- but who can't seem to help but get involved in all sorts of weirdness along the way.
As a major animation buff, one of the reasons I'm such a Curry fan is because of the vast amount of voice acting he's done. He's famous among animation fans for the wide variety of cartoon characters he's voiced -- and also the ones he hasn't. Bruce Timm, the showrunner of the popular 90s show Batman: The Animated Series, confessed that he originally hired Curry to provide the voice of the Joker in the show. Unfortunately, the producers had to let Curry go after he'd recorded the dialogue for only a few episodes. Curry was doing such a good job the producers were afraid his performance would traumatize the show's youngest viewers!
But you don't have to be an animation enthusiast to experience Curry's amazing vocal repertoire. Try, instead, his performance as the audiobook reader on Lemony Snicket's well-known children's series A Series of Unfortunate Events. This thirteen-book series features the misadventures of the Baudelaire orphans -- Violet, Klaus, and Sunny -- as they struggle to escape from the clutches of their new guardian, Count Olaf. Olaf is after the fortune that the Baudelaire parents left for their children.
Promising from the first page to be a book "with no happy ending," Unfortunate Events still manages to be a darkly humorous series, making it a match made in heaven to Curry's voice acting skills. He finds distinctive voices for the huge cast of characters, and his wry reading (matching Snicket's wry writing) makes this series primed to be enjoyed by listeners of all ages.
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