From sweet transvestite to sage vagabond, from vanguard of the stage to cult figure of the silver screen, Tim Curry has an extraordinary tale to tell.
In his memoir, VAGABOND, Curry engenders a shiver of anticipation with every chapter, something visceral that’s not too abysmal, delivering something of a time warp, a jump from the present into the past, a decades long career of iconic mantle.
It’s astounding, how time has fleeted. It was 50 years ago, everyone’s favourite camp sci-fi musical was released in cinemas. The Rocky Horror Picture Show went from box-office flop to cult phenomenon and debuted the inimitable Tim Curry, launching a varied and enduring career on stage, on screen and in virtuoso voice work.
From Rocky Horror to IT, from Clue to Legend, Tim Curry cultivated cult status. In VAGABOND, he reveals stories, controversies and secrets from his upbringing, how he became Dr. Frank-N-Furter, his love for the stage, how he grappled with his status as a queer and camp icon, his horrendous and debilitating health issues and his brushes with a plethora of star actors, writers and directors.
“The greatest ingredient in the secret sauce of my career is that I always read the fucking script- and closely. Anything I want to know should be somewhere in the text, so for each of my roles, I begin by reading through the script very thoroughly until I get an idea of how I want to play it. Then I show up, run through it, and I listen to my director’s feedback.”
As an actor and a story teller, Curry is without measure and has given us celluloid memories to treasure forever. His backgrounding of these productions are filled by joyous revelation. Adventures with directors Jim Sharman, Ridley Scott, Stephen Frears and John Huston, writers Richard O’Brien, Tom Stoppard and Peter Shaffer and actors Tom Cruise, Nell Campbell, Susan Sarandon, Michael Palin and Eric Idle to name a few.
Living gig to gig for over half a century, Curry writes that he has grown accustomed to appreciating and accepting lessons offered, then looking forward to the next challenge. Today, he is physically impaired due to a stroke endured in 2012, but continues to entertain through the pages of this book.
Give yourself over to absolute pleasure, plunge into the warm waters of this memorable memoir and enjoy the escapades, illusions and contradictions collected.
VAGABOND by Tim Curry is published by Century
