I rewatched The Hunt For Red October this week1, and I noticed Tim Curry was in it. I somehow thought he had died already, and then, the next day, he actually did.
A lot of actors from that movie have died. Sean Connery, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, surely more whose name I don’t remember, or never knew. This is a factor of the movie being released in 1990, 36 years ago, we’re all getting closer to that meet cute with the scythe dude.
Anyway, I had never realized before that Tim Curry was in it. Because Tim Curry was in everything. For a long time I couldn’t recognize him even tho I liked all his characters, and I find it ironic that just before he died, I did recognize him.
I recall the time when I first noticed Tim Curry was cast in roles so vastly different as to be unrecognizeable, and I started paying a bit more attention.
Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers is cunning and ruthless, Pennywise in the It miniseries is terrifying, Dr. Thornton Poole in Oscar2 is awkward and hilarious, the wizard Ymper Trymon in The Colour of Magic is sinister but ironic. Heck, I only realized he played Darkness in Legend yesterday, a movie I have not seen in 30+ years, and I am still scared of him. Do you see how far away from each other all those characters are?
And of course, he was Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (and later, The Rocky Horror Picture Show).
I cannot overstate how much I was blown away by watching the movie3. In fact, my online presence is generally named riffraff after the character in this show. To be honest, I didn’t know that riffraff was a real word4, I just liked the sound of it. I still do, so it was a good choice.
Tim Curry’s performance is incredible. He’s mesmerizing, he’s magnetic, he’s got a fantastic singing voice. He was, in my deeply personal opinion, ugly as hell5, but he’s got so much charisma that you can easily believe he’s a supernatural being who’ll have no trouble seducing the protagonists. And he’s good at walking in high heels!
So, goodbye Tim. I will spend the next decades (hopefully!) of my life looking out for your presence among the cast, and when I’ll notice I’ll say “oh wow, that’s Tim Curry! He had so much breadth in his performances!” like I’ve been doing for the last twenty years or so. And I’ll be a little happy, and a little sad.
- It’s a fantastic movie, and watching it I realized that while it is presented as a spy thriller it is, in my opinion, an action movie, except the action is carried out by submarines instead of car chases. Man, I love this movie. ↩︎
- Oscar is a brilliant comedy, and I fail to think of another actor who could have played Dr. Poole like he did. I can’t understand how this movie is not more popular. ↩︎
- I have never seen the actual theatre production, it’s on my bucket list. ↩︎
- riffraff /rĭf′răf″/ noun: people regarded as disreputable or worthless. ↩︎
- and yet, yesterday I saw someone saying “oh he was so attractive in RHPS!” ↩︎