By: Jesse Striewski
2026 has been a brutal year for celebrities passing. From Home Alone mom Catherine O’Hara in January, to action superstar Chuck Norris two months later, to country music icon Dolly Parton, and now, beloved actor Tim Curry, there’s been no shortage of saying “goodbye” to the many faces we grew up with.
I tried my best to recall what my initial introduction to Curry would’ve been, and if I had to guess it would likely be either 1983’s Clue or 1985’s Legend, each strong possibilities that I caught on cable as a kid, and without a doubt two of his most memorable roles (I’d wager the more likely scenario would’ve been Legend, as films such as it and The Neverending Story were high on my radar at the time).
But one thing I’m sure of, I was there alongside my family (as so many others were in those days) when Stephen King’s IT first aired as a two-part miniseries back in November of 1990. Curry menaced the screen as the clown Pennywise, and created a lasting character that still thrives until this day. (Sorry but the later versions of this still don’t hold a candle to the original in my book.)
By that point, it truly seemed as though Curry was actually everywhere you looked in cinema. When 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York came out, I can distinctly remember being there watching, as it was one of the first post-hospital films I saw while still in a wheelchair shortly after the car accident I was in earlier that year. Curry’s role as the hotel concierge helped provide some much-needed laughs at an otherwise darker time in my life.
Then of course there was his film debut, 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show, something that no doubt resonated with me as an outcast during adolescence. Again, I have somewhat sentimental memories attached to this, watching it on Halloween one year alongside my very first ever, “real” girlfriend.
I can also recall going to see 1995’s Congo and 2001’s Scary Movie 2 on the big screen, two more films that in hindsight, Curry helped steal the show tremendously, the former of which may very well have been all but forgettable if not for his appearance in it. In more recent times, I found myself reading and reviewing his memoir Vagabond and getting to know and appreciate him on a much deeper level. (I did not recall him having a brief music career at one point either prior to reading.)
Of course, these are all simply my memories of him alone, and hardly even scratches the surface on Curry’s decades-long career.
Grieving for someone you may not have known on a personal level can be a foreign concept to some. But when that person played a very real role in your formative years – as I think this very tribute to Tim Curry just confirmed he very well did for me personally – then it’s easy to mourn as though we did know them in some small sort of way. I’m just one of many who will miss him dearly, and if you’ve read this far, I can only assume that you are as well. Farewell Mr. Curry.
