Tim Curry opened up about his mortality nearly one year before he died at the age of 80.
“I don’t fear death,” Curry told CBS Sunday Morning in October 2025. “I try to avoid it, as I think we all do. But, I suspect that in the end, I will welcome it. Well, I think it may be very comforting to go bye-bye — and I want to earn it.”
The Rocky Horror Picture Show star suffered a stroke in 2012 that left him partially paralyzed.
“It was so strange. I was actually having a massage, and the guy who was giving me a massage said, ‘I’m worried about you. I think we should call a doctor.’ I felt fine,” Curry recalled on the show of his health scare. “I had no symptoms that I was aware of. I wasn’t in pain.”
After being transported to a local hospital, Curry was told that he had a stroke and required brain surgery. After the procedure, the actor underwent rehabilitation to learn how to speak again.
“That was very weird. I hated not being able to speak,” he said, also revealing he experienced paralysis on his left side. “My face kind of went sideways.”
Curry further hit back at the notion that he pitied himself over the ordeal.
“I don’t think so. I hope not, because I don’t admire self-pity much,” he said. “Another legacy from my mother, I guess. It’s one that I’m thankful for: ‘Why are you so important that we have to pity you?’”
Curry’s manager confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday, August 26, that the Clue star died. Further details, including a cause of death, were not immediately shared.
In the years following his stroke, Curry had remained in good spirits.
“I’m doing well,” he told Los Angeles magazine in 2015 after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Actors Fund, noting that his sense of humor was “absolutely vital” to his recovery. “It’s not tough to maintain. It is just part of my DNA.”
At the time, Curry gushed that he felt “lucky” to land the role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He stated that he often looked back on the cult film “with a sort of bemused tolerance” after it launched his film career,” stating, “It’s neither a blessing nor a curse.”
Amid his health issues, Curry shifted his focus to voice acting. He even served as the narrator for 2016’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.
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