Watch the ‘Clue’ movie trailer as the cult classic turns 40
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the cult classic “Clue,” starring Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Lesley Ann Warren, Michael McKean and more.
Tim Curry, the actor celebrated for his roles as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Pennywise the Clown in the 1990 version of “It,” has died. He was 80.
Curry’s representative, Sean Katz, confirmed the news to USA TODAY.
“Tim Curry, the iconic actor and entertainer globally beloved for his dynamic contributions to the stage and screen, passed away peacefully at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, on Aug. 26, 2026, confirmed by his longtime manager and friend Marcia Hurwitz,” the statement read.
“Though widely known for his inimitable, flamboyant characters and colorful stage performances,” the statement continued, “his greatest legacies to those who knew him were his curious, expansive mind and generous, gentle heart, both of which remained open and filled with anticipation until his final breath.”
Curry had been suffering from health issues in recent years and told fans in 2025 that he still struggles with mobility after a 2012 stroke.
“I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair, and that’s very limiting,” he said during an event at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. “So I won’t be singing and I won’t be dancing very soon. I still have real problems with my left leg.”
Curry is immortalized in cinema history as the flamboyant, fishnet-wearing “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank-N-Furter in “Rocky Horror,” the cult classic movie musical co-starring Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick.
Throughout his more than five-decade career, Curry endeared himself to family audiences playing patriarch Gomez Addams in 1998’s “Addams Family Reunion,” pirate Long John Silver in “Muppet Treasure Island” and a suspicious Plaza Hotel concierge in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
In addition to “Rocky Horror,” Curry often shined in the musical realm: portraying the conniving Rooster opposite Carol Burnett’s Miss Hannigan in 1982’s “Annie,” and earning a Tony Award nomination for best leading actor for Monty Python’s deeply silly Broadway adaptation of “Spamalot,” in which he played King Arthur.
Curry continually showed impressive range in movies as varied as “The Hunt for Red October,” “Kinsey” and Ridley Scott’s “Legend.” He was perhaps most beloved by comedy fans for playing butler Wadsworth, the effective straight man of 1985’s madcap ensemble mystery “Clue” with Madeline Kahn and Christopher Lloyd.
Of his films, the actor said he most enjoyed either “Clue” or “Oscar,” appearing alongside Sylvester Stallone in the 1991 screwball comedy. Curry was a standout in the latter as a Dr. Thornton Poole, a dialectician who falls for an ex-mobster’s daughter (Marisa Tomei).
“It’s the most like me,” Curry told USA TODAY last year. “My own personality. I didn’t have to invent him.”
Curry never married or had children.
This story is developing.