Tim Curry’s voice and powerful prescene made him perfect for all kinds of roles. The 80-year-old icon’s died was on Aug. 25. He revisited his roles in his 2025 book, “Vagabond.” The one role that he rarely spoke about was Pennywise in Stephen King’s “It” for interesting reasons.
‘It’ Viewers Told Tim Curry That He Traumatized Them
The actor starred as the murderous clown in 1990’s miniseries, “It.” A group of children who call themselves “The Losers Club” vow to kill the ancient creature that is hunting children. The Losers Club are adults in the second episode and reunite when Pennywise returns. Curry didn’t enjoy talking about the villain.
“I haven’t had much to say about it publicly for many years, which many people misread as my carrying some sort of deep conflict about the role. That’s really not the case, but I didn’t revel in the role, either,” he wrote in his book.
The “Rocky Horror Picture Show” star said he respected King and the miniseries was “strong.” The coversations he had with people about it were predictable.
“The majority of people who want to talk to me about being Pennywise are either notably odd people, who sort of revel in his evilness, or else they want me to know that I’ve really traumatized them, or made it impossible to sleep, or something of that variety. I don’t blame them-one of my lines is literally ‘I’m your worst dream come true,'” the Emmy winner explained.
He didn’t know how to respond to this. It also didn’t help that the Tony winner didn’t like clowns and wouldn’t look at himself in his character’s make up.
Stephen King Credited Curry for Making Pennywise Stay in Pop Culture
GettyIt’s hard to separate the alien creature from Curry. Bill Skarsgård bravely took over the role in a 2017 remake and got a lot of criticism and comparison’s to the previous portrayal. The author gave credit to Curry for the creature’s place in pop culture.
“A whole generation of kids between the ages of 8 and 14 were scared [expletive] by Tim Curry and when the new one came out it was a chance to revisit that particular experience in their childhood,” King told Entertainment Weekly.
“Then there was this weird viral bulge in stories about creepy clowns. That was in the press all over the place. So it was a number of different things. It was the right movie at the right time,” he continued.
Skarsgård’s uphill bottle to win over the audience was made harder when a picture of his character was released before filming started. “They did a thing that I felt was kind of mean,” he told Esquire.
But there is a good thing that came out of the early take downs of his portrayal. “It unlocked something in me,” he later said. “And it gave me the confidence that I can take on any challenge.”
Curry’s portrayal of his iconic characters like Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Wadsworth, and more will be tough for any actor in the future. The actor had a stroke in 2012 and he had brain surgery. He lost his ability to walk and sing. Curry died in his home on Aug. 25.
