“Hey Columbia, who is Tim Curry?”

Well this one is really devastating. Losing Dolly Parton yesterday was a real punch in the gut, to be sure, but Tim Curry has been a huge part of my life, for as long as I can remember.

Annie (1982) was one of my sister’s favorite movies when we were little, so I probably saw that one over a hundred times — and his villainous turn as Rooster really stole the show there (especially the song with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters).

I never saw The Worst Witch or Legend as a kid, but I know both were a huge part of my wife’s childhood. On the other hand, I did absolutely fall in love with Clue where he portrays Wadsworth the butler (whose job is to buttle, of course). It was and remains to this day one of my favorite comedies of all time.

People will doubtless have their own favorites among this global treasure of an actor’s numerous roles, whether it’s the evil spirit from FernGully (remember when Bog Wizard covered his big song from that movie on their album from last year?), the evil clown from IT, the evil pipe organ from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (which until I just searched for it now, I had been convinced was titled “Belle’s Enchanted Christmas” — am I crazy?), the evil hotel concierge from Home Alone 2 (although not the worst character in that movie by a long shot!), or the evil ship’s cook Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island.

But probably the part that had the biggest effect on me personally would have to be as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (reprising the role he previously had onstage in The Rocky Horror Show). I went to see it with some friends when I was in high school — a midnight showing at the former Hollywood Theater in Dormont, PA (incidentally, the same theater where they filmed that Wallflower movie) — and had absolutely no idea what was going on. All the people yelling nonsense at the screen and throwing things across the theater were so distracting, I couldn’t follow the plot at all. Soon afterwards I watched the movie at home and realized it wasn’t actually the theater environment that was to blame (no, Sue’s to blame, didn’t you read the fucking credits?), the movie just didn’t make much sense in the first place! But I was completely hooked and started going back week after week. I lost count after a while, but I’m sure I went there more than fifty times; perhaps closer to seventy, including a handful of appearances after they re-opened that theater in the early 2010s when I was in my 30s.

We’ve veered way off-topic though, my point here was Tim Curry was a tremendous human being who shone brightly everywhere he appeared, no matter how silly or strange, and the world will never be the same without him in it.

Rest in peace, and I hope you are now doing The Rock in heaven. It’s stimulating.