GoKawiilCareer
1968–1975: Breakthrough with Hair and Rocky Horror
Curry's full-time role was as part of the original London cast of the musical Hair in 1968, where he met Richard O'Brien,[10] who went on to write Curry's role of Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (1973).[11] Curry recalled his first encounter with the project:
I'd heard about the play because I lived on Paddington Street, off Baker Street, and there was an old gym a few doors away. I saw Richard O'Brien in the street, and he said he'd just been to the gym to see if he could find a muscleman who could sing. I said, "Why do you need him to sing?" [laughs] And he told me that his musical was going to be done, and I should talk to Jim Sharman. He gave me the script, and I thought, "Boy, if this works, it's going to be a smash."[12]
Originally, Curry rehearsed the character with a German accent and peroxide blond hair, and later, with an American accent. In March 2005, in an interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air, he explained that he decided to play Dr Frank-N-Furter with an English accent after listening to an English woman say, "Do you have a house in town or a house in the country?," and decided, "Yes, [Dr Frank-N-Furter] should sound like the Queen."[13]
Curry originally thought the character was merely a laboratory doctor dressed in a white lab coat. However, at the suggestion of director Sharman, the character evolved into the diabolical mad scientist and transvestite with an upper-class Belgravia accent. An immediate hit, a reviewer at the premiere in London in June 1973 wrote that Curry gives a "garishly Bowiesque performance as the ambisextrous doctor."[14] This change carried over to the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show,[15] which made Curry a household name and gave him a cult following. Curry continued to play the character in London, Los Angeles, and New York City until 1975.[16]
In an interview with NPR, Curry called Rocky Horror a "rite of passage", and added that the film is "a guaranteed weekend party to which you can go with or without a date and probably find one if you don't have one, and it's also a chance for people to try on a few roles for size, you know? Figure out, help them maybe figure out their own sexuality."[13]
In 2016, Curry played the Criminologist in the television film remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.[17] In 2025, Curry was an invited guest speaker at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to celebrate the film's 50th anniversary.[18]