Tim Curry

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Image:Tim Curry 01.jpg Timothy James Curry (born April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, a district of the town Warrington, Cheshire England) is an English actor, vocalist and composer perhaps best known for his role as mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). He also had an earlier career as a rock musician. He studied Drama and English at Birmingham and then at Cambridge. His list of roles is extensive, in both TV and movies, live-action and voice-acting for animated features, and it is notable that he almost always plays a villain of one kind or another. He currently resides in Los Angeles, though for the past year or so has been in Chicago, New York and most recently London, with the current Broadway hit Monty Python's Spamalot.

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Early life

Tim Curry's father James was a Methodist chaplain for the British Navy, though Curry himself says he was always a "cheerful agnostic," and remains so to this day. Upon his father's death in 1958, Curry relocated to South London, where he attended a boarding school founded by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. The school was "quite liberal," and though he didn't enjoy the religious aspect especially he did enjoy the vast number of hymns available. There, he developed into a talented boy soprano. When his voice broke, his music teacher encouraged him to develop a mature singing voice.

When he was 19, he began his studies at the University of Birmingham, where he also acted with the renowned Guild Theatre Group, completing a joint honours in English and Drama before moving on to study at the University of Cambridge.

He cites Billie Holiday as his major musical influence, saying that he "listened to nothing but her records for two years" during a period of teenage depression as he contemplated on "which gloomy Sunday afternoon I was going to throw myself under a car."

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Musical career

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In 1978, A&M Records released Curry's debut solo album, Read My Lips. The album featured an eclectic range of songs (mostly covers) performed in diverse genre. Highlights of the album are a reggae version of the Beatles song "I Will," a rendition of "Wake Nicodemus" with full bagpipe backing, and an original bar-room ballad, "Alan."

The following year, Curry released his second and most successful album, Fearless. The LP was more rock-oriented than Read My Lips and mostly featured original songs rather than cover versions. The record included Curry's only US charting songs: "I Do the Rock" and "Paradise Garage."

Curry's third and final album, Simplicity, was released in 1981, again by A&M Records. This record, which did not sell as well as the previous offerings, combined both original songs and cover versions, and is commonly held to be the weakest of his three albums.

In 1989, A&M released The Best of Tim Curry on CD and cassette, featuring songs from his albums (including a live version of "Alan") and a previously unreleased song, a live cover version of "Simple Twist of Fate."

Curry toured America with his band through the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s.

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Acting career

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Rocky Horror

Image:Rocky Horror Picture Show Cover.jpg Curry's first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968. Here he first met Richard O'Brien, who went on to create his next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of Dr. Frank N. Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blonde hair, but the character evolved into the sly, very upper-class English (He says 'dine' instead of down, 'brine' instead of brown, etc) mad scientist and drag queen that carried over to the movie version and made Curry both a star and a cult figure. He continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles and New York until 1975.

For many years, Curry was reluctant to talk about Rocky Horror, feeling that it was a trend that had gone too far and had distracted attention away from his later roles. However, in recent years he has been much more open about discussing the show and now recognises it as a "rite of passage" for many young people.

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Theatre

In 1979, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in a London stage version of The Pirates of Penzance opposite George Cole. The role is one of his favourites even now.

In 1981, he formed part of the original cast in the Broadway show Amadeus, playing the title character, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was nominated for his first Tony Award (Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play) for this role, but lost out to his co-star Sir Ian McKellen.

In 1993, he played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical My Favourite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

In late 2004, he began his role of King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago. The show successfully moved to Broadway in February 2005. His part in the show got him his third and most recent Tony Award nomination, again for Best Actor in a Musical. On February 21, 2006 it was announced that Curry was to open the show in London's West End at the Palace Theatre in October 2006, and will play the part until some time in January 2007. when he will be replaced by Simon Russell Beale, who also took over the role on Broadway.

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Movies and television

Curry's television and movie credits are long and varied. Amongst his most notable roles are:

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Voice acting

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From the early 1990s onward, Curry has been also become known as a highly-acclaimed voice artist. Notable roles include:

Curry was cast as the Joker in Warner Brothers' Batman: The Animated Series, and even recorded several episodes worth of dialogue, but the producers felt his interpretation was too dark and frightening. They recast Mark Hamill in the role, who leavened the character's darkness with an unpredictable sense of humor.

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Awards and nominations

  • 1981 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Play (for playing the title role in "Amadeus")
  • 1993 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing Alan Swann in "My Favorite Year")
  • 1994 Emmy Award nomination, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (for a trio of roles in Tales from the Crypt, in an episode entitled "Death of Some Salesmen")
  • 1996 Razzie Award nomination, Worst Supporting Actor (for playing Herkermer Homolka in the movie "Congo")
  • 1998 Annie Award nomination, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production (for playing Forté in "Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas")
  • 2005 Tony Award nomination, Best Actor in a Musical (for playing King Arthur in "Monty Python's Spamalot")
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External links

fr:Tim Curry it:Tim Curry ja:ティム・カリー nl:Tim Curry sv:Tim Curry

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