The actor best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show died Tuesday night at his Los Angeles home. His Disney work spanned three decades, and he said the Muppet film was the one he loved most.
Tim Curry has died at 80.
The actor died Tuesday night at his Los Angeles home, his manager confirmed. He had lived with significant health issues since a severe stroke in 2012 that required brain surgery and left him unable to walk.
Law enforcement responded to the residence at 11:23 p.m. Tuesday. No foul play is suspected. A cause of death has not been released.
Tim Curry’s Disney work spanned three decades
Curry is being remembered for The Rocky Horror Picture Show and for Pennywise in the 1990 adaptation of It. His Disney résumé is longer than most obituaries will have room for.
He played Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, the 1996 film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jim Henson Productions, directed by Brian Henson.
He voiced Forté in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Lord Dragaunus in Mighty Ducks, and Moltoc in Quack Pack.
Later work included Dr. Slicer in Recess, Percival in The Proud Family, Worthington Dubois in Phineas and Ferb, and The Sorcerer in the first season of Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja.
He also voiced Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which became Disney property after the Lucasfilm acquisition.
He said Long John Silver was his favorite role
Of everything he made, the one he named was the pirate.
Curry said in multiple interviews that playing Long John Silver was his favorite movie role. He had long wanted to play the character, and he built the voice from his own seafaring grandfather.
Speaking to D23, he described the challenge of being one human surrounded by Muppets. “Forget the usual adage,” he said. “Muppets can upstage you much easier than animals or children.”
He called Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest legends, saying they trail charisma behind them and you feel you know them as friends.
When he asked about billing during negotiations, he was told he would be first among humans. He said he wanted that on all his films going forward.
How Muppet Treasure Island changed how Henson worked
Curry’s approach on that production left a mark on the franchise.
He performed his songs “Sailing for Adventure” and “A Professional Pirate” live on set rather than lip-syncing to a recording.
Brian Henson made live singing a standard for his films afterward, a change traceable directly to how Curry chose to work.
“A Professional Pirate” was written before the filmmakers knew who would play Silver. Producer Martin G. Baker recalled hoping the role would go to someone who could handle it, and said the team was overjoyed when Curry was cast.
Hans Zimmer, fresh off The Lion King, wrote the score.
At the end of filming, Curry was given a Muppet caricature of himself. Behind-the-scenes footage includes a short feature called Tim and Him, in which the two of them trade jokes.
The Disney roles he almost had
Two near-misses are part of the record.
Curry auditioned for Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He did not get it, with the long-repeated account being that producers found his performance too frightening.
He was also considered to voice the Beast in Beauty and the Beast before Robby Benson was cast. He would voice Forté in the direct-to-video sequel years later.
Both stories circulate widely in Disney fan circles and neither has been formally documented by the studio.
Tim Curry’s career beyond Disney
He came up on stage, not screen.
Born April 19, 1946 in Cheshire, England, Curry made his professional debut in a 1968 West End production of Hair shortly after graduating from the University of Birmingham. It was there he met Richard O’Brien, who wrote The Rocky Horror Show.
Curry helped develop Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a character originally conceived as a lab-coat-wearing German. He originated the role on stage in London, carried it to Los Angeles and Broadway, and starred in the 1975 film.
He earned three Tony nominations and two Olivier nods, with a breakout stage turn as Mozart in Amadeus in 1980.
He won a Daytime Emmy in 1991 for Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates and was Emmy-nominated in 1994 for Tales from the Crypt. A 2002 Grammy nomination came for narrating A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Other credits included Annie, The Hunt for Red October, Home Alone 2, and Clue.
His later years
After the 2012 stroke, voice work became his primary employment.
He appeared as the narrator in the 2016 television remake The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again, in which Laverne Cox played Frank-N-Furter.
He published a memoir, Vagabond, in 2025. Around its release he said he was still unable to walk.
Muppet Treasure Island is streaming on Disney+.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
CBS News (August 26, 2026), the manager’s confirmation of the death and Curry’s age
Variety (August 26, 2026), independent confirmation, the stage career, the 2016 remake, and the post-stroke work
The Hollywood Reporter (August 26, 2026), the biographical detail and the Rocky Horror development history
TMZ (August 26, 2026), the initial report, the time of the police response, and the no-foul-play detail
D23 (2026), Curry’s comments on working with the Muppets and the production background including Hans Zimmer and Martin G. Baker
ScreenRant (2022), Curry performing his songs live on set and Brian Henson adopting the practice