He could be theatrical without losing the character beneath the performance.
That made him ideal for roles that required both danger and humor.
In the 1985 murder mystery comedy Clue, he played Wadsworth, the increasingly frantic butler trying to manage a mansion filled with secrets, accusations and bodies.
The role allowed Curry to demonstrate something different from the seductive excess of Frank-N-Furter.
His physical comedy, verbal precision and accelerating energy became central to the movie.
Like Rocky Horror, Clue eventually developed an intensely loyal cult following.
Then came another role that would haunt viewers for decades.
In the 1990 television adaptation of Stephen King's IT, Curry played Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
The character was terrifying precisely because Curry did not play him as a purely supernatural monster.
He smiled.
He joked.
He teased.
And then he became horrifying.
For many viewers who encountered the miniseries as children, Curry's Pennywise became one of the most memorable horror performances of the era.
Two years later, Curry showed up in a very different kind of family film.
In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, he played Mr. Hector, the suspicious concierge at the Plaza Hotel.
Curry transformed what could have been a minor supporting role into one of the movie's most memorable comic performances.
His exaggerated facial expressions alone became widely recognizable.
The smirk.
The raised eyebrow.
The visible suspicion.
The small moments were pure Curry.
The Voice That Could Become Almost Anything
Curry's voice had always been one of his most recognizable tools.
Deep, expressive and theatrical, it could sound elegant one moment and menacing the next.
That quality made him a natural voice actor.
Across his career, he performed in animated television series, films, games and other projects.
He won a Daytime Emmy in 1991 for his voice work in Peter Pan and the Pirates, according to Reuters.
Voice acting offered Curry something particularly important after his stroke.
Even as his physical mobility became severely limited, he could still participate in performance through sound.
Penguin's description of his memoir specifically notes that his voice work became a way to pivot professionally after the 2012 stroke.
That did not mean his recovery was simple.
The stroke had affected his speech.
But the fact that Curry could continue working at all represented a meaningful continuation of the profession that had shaped nearly his entire adult life.
His career did not stop.
It changed form.
Rehabilitation and a New Reality
Stroke recovery varies dramatically from person to person.
For Curry, rehabilitation became part of life after 2012.
He worked to recover communication abilities and adapt to lasting mobility impairment.
By the time Los Angeles Magazine interviewed him in 2015, his speech was slower than before, but the publication noted that his familiar humor was still there.
That observation says something important about Curry's public presence after the stroke.
People did not simply see an actor who had become physically disabled.
They still saw Tim Curry.
The wit remained.
The intelligence remained.
The timing remained.
His public appearances became different, but they did not become meaningless.
In 2015, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award connected with the Actors Fund.
For someone who had spent decades moving rapidly between theater, film, television and voice work, such recognition naturally looked backward at his accomplishments.
But Curry was not finished.
One of his most important post-stroke appearances was still to come.
Returning to Rocky Horror
In 2016, FOX created a new television version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The production, titled The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, featured Laverne Cox as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Curry did not attempt to reclaim the role he had made famous.
Instead, he returned in a different capacity.
He played the Criminologist Narrator.