Confessions of a Not-So-Dangerous Mind*
Aug 28, 2026 · 22 min · 9 segments
Legendary TV, theater, and movie actor Tim Curry passed away yesterday. Join me for a look back at some of his most memorable roles and performances.
And, you know, there are certain performers in movies that you can't really explain what they do, but they're doing something different.
And an actor I'm thinking of that I don't believe ever worked with Tim Curry and has had a completely different kind of a performance style, and yet when you watch him and have watched him in the same way that you would say of Tim Curry, he's just doing something different up there.
Bruce Dern does something different every movie he's in, every TV show he's appeared in.
You can objectively say, "This guy is not like anyone else." Tim Curry was not like anyone else to at least as much of a degree as the great Bruce Dern, who is into his 80s now and I think still working.
So the only Tim Curry movies that I saw in theaters, the answer to the question, how many did I see in theaters, I believe is two.
And Tim Curry is amazing in that film, essentially creating a really u- you know, like an interesting, unconventional character out of thin air just by sheer force of will pulling it off.
But Tim Curry is somebody where there-- you can point to various projects where you wouldn't have thought that he would be the choice for casting.
This is touched by genius and madness in equal measure." Or maybe you could say it's more madness than genius or more genius than madness.
But the two best examples for that, The Rocky Horror Picture Show in '75, I think it was '75, and the 1990 TV miniseries version of Stephen King's It, where he was cast as Pennywise.
And certainly there's a lot of information and a lot of, generally speaking, good-hearted, good-natured debate between, uh, you know, fans of whether you're a bigger fan of the It miniseries or the, the Bill Skarsgård, the first movie, the second movie, Welcome to Derry, which is running now on HBO Max.
And, you know, there are certain performers in movies that you can't really explain what they do, but they're doing something different.
And an actor I'm thinking of that I don't believe ever worked with Tim Curry and has had a completely different kind of a performance style, and yet when you watch him and have watched him in the same way that you would say of Tim Curry, he's just doing something different up there.
Bruce Dern does something different every movie he's in, every TV show he's appeared in.
You can objectively say, "This guy is not like anyone else." Tim Curry was not like anyone else to at least as much of a degree as the great Bruce Dern, who is into his 80s now and I think still working.
So the only Tim Curry movies that I saw in theaters, the answer to the question, how many did I see in theaters, I believe is two.
And Tim Curry is amazing in that film, essentially creating a really u- you know, like an interesting, unconventional character out of thin air just by sheer force of will pulling it off.
But Tim Curry is somebody where there-- you can point to various projects where you wouldn't have thought that he would be the choice for casting.
This is touched by genius and madness in equal measure." Or maybe you could say it's more madness than genius or more genius than madness.
But the two best examples for that, The Rocky Horror Picture Show in '75, I think it was '75, and the 1990 TV miniseries version of Stephen King's It, where he was cast as Pennywise.
And certainly there's a lot of information and a lot of, generally speaking, good-hearted, good-natured debate between, uh, you know, fans of whether you're a bigger fan of the It miniseries or the, the Bill Skarsgård, the first movie, the second movie, Welcome to Derry, which is running now on HBO Max.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.