This week, as people continue to deal with the death of Tim Curry — legendary actor and, in many ways, a hero to misfits across the world — his movies and roles are naturally coming back into focus as people renew their love for everything he gave us.
Pennywise the Dancing Clown will obviously be near the top of that list.
Bill Skarsgård’s movie version is amazing in its own right, but Tim Curry created something in 1990 that simply stuck. That face. That voice. The humor mixed with menace. Curry’s Pennywise became an image burned into pop culture and helped establish the character for an entire generation.
But there’s another Tim Curry movie we’d like to celebrate right now, one that deserves just as much attention:
Clue.
Tim Curry’s performance as Wadsworth in Clue was, hands down, one of his greatest.
He was basically a real-life comic book character running around that mansion as this collection of wealthy, eccentric and increasingly suspicious people attempted to figure out who was murdering everyone around them.
And Curry never stopped moving.
Especially during that incredible final act, when Wadsworth practically reenacts the entire movie — racing from room to room, retracing everyone’s steps, changing voices, throwing himself around the mansion ..
He even a medical issue from it!
Tim Curry once described the toll this role took on him: “I actually had a sort of incident of high blood pressure towards the end, when all of the conclusions were happening, because I was running around like a mad person. They took me to the doctor and I had to take pills for a week, my blood pressure was so high. Which was very tiresome.”
Clue is one of those rare movies that remains fun across generations. Kids can watch it and laugh at the physical comedy. Adults pick up on an entirely different layer of jokes. People from completely different backgrounds and generations have discovered it, quoted it and watched it over and over again.
And I think a tremendous amount of that comes down to Tim Curry.
Go back and watch Clue sometime and mentally remove him from the movie.
Just imagine those same scenes with everyone else.
It’s still a good cast. It’s still a clever story. There are still funny performances.
But something is missing.
It doesn’t quite hit.
Tim Curry was the electricity running through that movie. There was something special about what he did with Wadsworth that elevated everyone around him and helped turn what could have been a forgotten 1980s comedy into a movie people are still watching and loving more than 40 years later.
The world lost a great actor, and for many people who grew up watching him, it almost feels like we lost an old friend.
So perhaps this weekend, or whenever you find a little spare time in life, go back and revisit some Tim Curry.
Sure, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and IT will understandably be near the top of the list.
But give Clue another watch.
And while you’re watching it, try to imagine that movie working without Tim Curry.
You won’t be able to.
