Friends close to the late Rocky Horror Picture Show actor Tim Curry have given insight into the health struggles that impacted his final years, claiming he would have seen death as ‘a relief’.
Curry died ‘peacefully’ at home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night aged 80, his rep confirmed to Variety.
His varied career had made him a firm fan-favourite, thrilling audiences in other films too, including Home Alone 2, Clue, Annie, Muppet Treasure Island and FernGully: The Last Rainforest, as well as TV shows such as It and The Wild Thornberrys.
However, he was best known for originating the iconic role of Dr Frank-N-Furter, the ‘sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania’ in the beloved Rocky Horror Picture Show, and its stage iteration beforehand.
But after a stroke in 2012 left him partially paralysed, the actor retreated from the spotlight more, seen in public far more rarely but continuing to working sporadically with his voice acting.
‘He was such a lively and animated person with so much talent in his fingertips that he missed the life that he had before his devastating stroke, as it took so much from him,’ an insider told the Daily Mail.
They added that the past few years had ‘taken a tremendous toll on his health’.
‘He’s been in that body for 14 years not doing what he loves to do, run around and jump on stage and do musicals and sing and dance. But you know what? That’s there forever. His legacy is there forever,’ Scott Stander, producer of anniversary tours of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, also told the outlet.
Curry’s friends also insist that he ‘wasn’t afraid’ of death and had still been ‘grateful for life and the life he had’, while still understanding how profoundly his stroke had affected his future and quality of life.
‘Though sad, since Tim still had a zest for life, it also comes as a small relief to people who really knew him and knew how he was feeling the last few years,’ a source said.
‘Most that knew him would say that he would consider it a bit of a relief as well.’
Another insider agreed, revealing that those closest to Curry understood how difficult for him living with limitations had been.
‘’Some of his friends think he was, in a way, happy to finally go because it was hard for him,’ they added.
However, filmmaker Michael Leavy, who directed Curry in 2020’s Stream and had been working with him on the sequel – one of his final projects – still praised his spirit, noting that even after his stroke ‘Tim maintained that unmistakable sense of humour, wit, warmth, and charm that made him so uniquely genuine’.
Curry gave rare insight into his health problems in October at a special screening last to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Academy Museum in LA, revealing ‘real problems’.
