Rocky Horror Show star Tim Curry, 67, recovering at his LA home after suffering a major stroke



'He is doing great': Tim Curry is recovering at his LA home after having a stroke



Tim Curry, the star of the Rocky Horror Show, is recovering after having a stroke at his home in Los Angeles.

The British actor, 67, is said to be ‘doing great’ following the collapse.

Curry rose to fame as Dr Frank-N-Furter in the cult musical and went on to a successful stage and film career.

Few details were available about the stroke last night, but sources close to the actor denied suggestions that the stroke had made it difficult for him to speak.

His Los Angeles agent Marcia Hurwitz said: ‘Tim is doing great. He absolutely can speak and is recovering at this time and in great humour.’

Curry, who is unmarried and lives in the Hollywood Hills in a Spanish colonial-style villa, is one of Britain’s most successful character actors.

In 2011 he was scheduled to appear in a Sir Trevor Nunn production of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead in Chichester and London but withdrew from the production at the last minute citing ill health.

At the time, he was said to be having debilitating asthma attacks after a chest infection.

The extremely private actor rarely talks about his personal life and it is not known if he has a partner.

He was born in Grappenhall, Cheshire, in 1946. His father James, a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain, died aged 45 when Curry was only 12.

His mother Patricia, a school secretary, died from cancer in 1999 and his older sister, Judy, died in 2001 after having a brain tumour.

Curry’s first professional stage role was in the musical Hair in 1968, the year he graduated from Birmingham University.

Screen star: Tim as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in 1975 cult musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show

He hit the big time in the original 1973 London production of The Rocky Horror Show, playing the mad transvestite scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter. He went with the show to New York and Los Angeles before playing the same character in the 1975 film.

Critics described his performance as ‘a mixture of Joan Crawford and Burt Lancaster’ and ‘Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Marc Bolan all in one’.

For many years he was reluctant to talk about the show, worried that it would typecast him and detract from his later projects.

In 1981 he was nominated for a Tony award for the lead role in the play Amadeus. Other stage roles included The Pirates Of Penzance in 1982 and Me And My Girl in 1987.

Between 2004 and 2007 he played King Arthur in the Monty Python musical Spamalot on stage in Chicago, Broadway and the West End. More recently, in April last year he appeared in Eric Idle’s play What About Dick? at the Orpheum in Los Angeles.