Tim Curry’s cause of death has been confirmed more than a week after the celebrated British actor died at the age of 80.
Curry died from coronary artery disease, according to Los Angeles County Department of Public Health records obtained by PEOPLE. The records also listed a history of stroke and kidney cancer as significant conditions that contributed to his death, although neither was identified as the underlying cause.
One less widely noted detail in the records is that no operations were performed in connection with Curry’s coronary artery disease, kidney cancer or history of stroke.
Curry died peacefully at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, on August 25. PEOPLE reported that his time of death was 11:18 p.m. Los Angeles police also confirmed that officers responded to a call for service that day and completed a death investigation involving a man in his 80s at a North Hollywood home.
USA TODAY separately reported the primary cause of death as coronary artery disease, while also identifying Curry’s previous stroke and kidney cancer among the contributing conditions.
A stroke changed the course of Curry’s later years
Curry had lived with the lasting effects of a major stroke he suffered in 2012.
The medical emergency substantially reduced his mobility and led him to step away from much of the public-facing acting work that had defined his career. He continued working, however, particularly through voice performances.
Curry made comments regarding his current physical challenges in September 2025. When appearing for a 50th anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, he explained that he was still unable to walk and experienced issues with his left leg.
USA TODAY reported that Curry worked less frequently following the stroke but eventually returned to the screen for the 2024 horror film Stream, described by the outlet as his final acting credit according to IMDb.
His health challenges never entirely removed him from the creative life that had occupied more than five decades.
From Frank-N-Furter to Wadsworth and Pennywise
For generations of moviegoers, Curry was not associated with just one character.
His breakthrough came with Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a performance that became one of the defining parts of his career. His work afterward showed an unusual ability to move between comedy, horror, musical theatre, drama and voice acting without being permanently tied to the role that first made him famous.
Among his best-known screen performances were Rooster in Annie, Wadsworth in Clue, Pennywise in the 1990 adaptation of It, Mr. Hector in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island.
His career was just as firmly rooted in theatre.
Curry began working on the West End and appeared in the original London production of Hair in 1968. He went on to receive three Tony Award nominations and two Laurence Olivier Award nominations.
One of those Tony nominations came for playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Broadway production of Amadeus in 1981. Later nominations followed for My Favorite Year and Spamalot.
His voice work brought another major honour. In 1991, Curry won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series for voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates.
A final creative chapter
Curry’s later years were shaped by physical restrictions, but his connection to his work and audience remained visible.
He made a public appearance during the 50-year anniversary celebration of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Academy Museum in September 2025 and spoke about the effects that his stroke had on him.
That same period also brought another addition to his body of work. Curry published a memoir, ** Vagabond, in October 2025**.
His representative Sean Katz described Curry after his death as an artist who repeatedly resisted being confined to a single genre or character. Across five decades, his work moved through horror, comedy, drama, music, theatre and animation, leaving audiences with performances that often seemed to belong to entirely different careers.
That range may ultimately be the clearest way to understand Curry’s legacy. To one audience he will remain Frank-N-Furter. To another, the frantic and sharply comic Wadsworth. For many who encountered him through television, he was the chilling face of Pennywise or simply a voice they remembered from childhood.
Curry turned 80 in April 2026. He died on August 25, closing a career that had begun on the London stage nearly six decades earlier and developed into one of the more varied bodies of work in British screen and theatre performance.
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