Tim Curry, the actor known for a wide range of film and stage characters, has died. His long-time friend and manager, Marcia Hurwitz, confirmed to Deadline that he died peacefully. From a killer clown and a dashing pirate to a frantic butler and an alien mad scientist in drag, Curry’s work stretched across stage, television and film over five decades. An official announcement said Curry refused to be boxed in by other people’s expectations and moved between comedy, horror, drama and music. It remembered his curious, expansive mind and generous, gentle heart. Although he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2012, he continued working as an artist and, more recently, as a writer until the end of his life. Theater was central to Curry’s career. He first appeared in a 1968 West End production of the musical Hair in London. He received three Tony Award nominations: for playing Mozart in Amadeus in 1980, Alan Swann in My Favorite Year in 1992, and King Arthur in Spamalot in 2004. He returned to the King Arthur role in London in 2006 and received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. In 1982, he also gave an energetic performance as the Pirate King in a Drury Lane production of The Pirates of Penzance. On screen, Curry remains closely associated with Dr. Frank-N-Furter. He first played the role in the 1973 London stage production of The Rocky Horror Show. Its Broadway run failed, but Curry later said the experience helped free him to take creative risks. The 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show became the longest-running theatrical release in film history. Curry attended the American Museum of Motion Pictures’ 50th-anniversary event last year and played the Criminologist in the 2016 television remake. Another generation knows him as Pennywise, the shapeshifting killer clown in the 1990 television miniseries IT. Curry admired Bill Skarsgård’s later film version, but his own gloating, often giggly Pennywise was the first screen portrayal to bring the character to frightening life. He persuaded makeup artist Bart Mixon to keep prosthetics to a minimum, allowing his eyes and natural expressions to carry the role. Curry’s comic work included Wadsworth, the butler in Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 board-game adaptation Clue. At the film’s climax, he rapidly sets out three separate solutions to the murders alongside Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd and the rest of the cast. In Home Alone 2, he played Mr. Hector, the Plaza Hotel concierge who tries to outwit Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin. In 1996’s Muppet Treasure Island, he played Long John Silver and performed “Professional Pirate” with the film’s puppets. He played Cardinal Richelieu in the 1993 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, plotting against the queen at the French court before meeting his comeuppance. In the 2000 reboot of Charlie’s Angels, he appeared as Roger Corwin, a billionaire who runs a communications satellite company. Corwin challenges Bill Murray’s Bosley to a sumo match before being murdered by a pool. Curry was also a well-known voice actor. He won an Emmy in 1990 for voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates. His voice work in The Wild Thornberrys, from 1998 to 2004, was particularly loved. Between 2012 and 2014, he replaced the late Ian Abercrombie as the voice of Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Pennywise and Mr. Hector show how differently Curry could handle horror and comedy. For audiences in Soomaaliya and the Somali diaspora, those roles offer a clear route back to the varied films and television work shaped by his voice and presence.