Tim Curry

Timothy James "Tim" Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor, singer, composer and voice artist, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions, including the role of Captain Hook in the 1990s Fox TV series Peter Pan and the Pirates, for which he won an Emmy. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Curry first became known to audiences with his breakthrough role as Frank N. Furter in the 1975 cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then later for his roles as Rooster in the film adaption of Annie, Lord of Darkness in the film Legend (1985), Wadsworth in the movie Clue, and as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the horror film Stephen King's It. He became known to younger audiences as Nigel, the father in the Nickelodeon children's TV show, The Wild Thornberrys. He has performed the role of King Arthur in the Broadway hit Monty Python's Spamalot.

Biography
Curry's father, James, was a Methodist chaplain in the Royal Navy, and his mother Patricia was a school secretary. He was born and brought up in Warrington and attended Lymm High School until his father's death in 1958, when Curry moved to South London. He attended Kingswood School in Bath. As a child, he developed into a talented boy soprano (treble). Deciding to concentrate on acting, he graduated from Birmingham University with a combined degree in English and drama.

His first full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he first met Richard O'Brien, who went on to write Curry's next full-time and perhaps still most famous role, that of Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, but the character evolved into the sly, very upper-class English mad scientist and transvestite that carried over to the movie version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show 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. He grew so unnerved by all the fan attention after this role that he became "chubby and plain" in order to escape it. He has since been much more open about discussing the show, and recognizes it as a "rite of passage" for many young people.

Shortly after the end of Rocky Horror Show on Broadway, Curry was back on Broadway with Tom Stoppard's Travesties. In 1981 he played Mozart in the original cast of the Broadway show Amadeus. He was nominated for a Tony Award, but lost out to his co-star Ian McKellen, who played Mozart's nemesis Antonio Salieri. In 1982, Curry took the part of the Pirate King in the Drury Lane production of Joe Papp's version of The Pirates of Penzance, earning enthusiastic reviews.

Curry performed in various stage productions in both the U.K. and the U.S., including The Rivals (Bob Acres 1983), several plays with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, including the Threepenny Opera (MacHeath 1986), Dalliance (Theodore 1986), and Love For Love (Tattle 1985). He played the lead in the national tour of Me and My Girl and returned to the New York stage in The Art of Success. In 1993, he played Alan Swann in the Broadway musical version of My Favorite Year, earning him his second Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

In 2001, he starred as Scrooge in a musical version of A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. In 2004, he began playing King Arthur in Spamalot in Chicago, which moved to Broadway in February 2005, bringing him a third Tony nomination. He reprised this role in London's West End in 2006.