Tim Curry’s Cause of Death Revealed

Sep 03, 2026 - 01:10

0 0

After Tim Curry’s death at the age of 80, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue star’s official cause of death has been confirmed.

Tim Curry, ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and ‘Clue’ Actor, Dead at 80

New details are coming to light after Tim Curry’s passing.

One week after the Rocky Horror Picture Show star died at the age of 80 on Aug. 25, his cause of death has been attributed to coronary artery disease, per documents obtained by People from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The documents, according to the outlet, also noted stroke and kidney cancer as conditions that contributed to his death, but that did not result in the underlying cause of the actor's passing.

Indeed, 14 years before his death Curry suffered a stroke that required brain surgery.

“It was so strange,” he said during a CBS Sunday Morning appearance in October 2025. “I was actually having a massage, and the guy who was giving me a massage said, ‘I’m worried about you. I think we should call a doctor.’ I felt fine. I had no symptoms I was aware of. I wasn’t in pain.”

After being admitted to the hospital, Curry—whose dad died following a stroke when the actor was 10 years old—shared he was “scared” but knew the road to recovery was ahead of him.

“I had to learn how to speak again,” the Clue actor explained at the time. “That was very weird. I hated not being able to speak.”

The left side of his face also became paralyzed, he noted: “My face kind of went sideways.”

Curry—who starred as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror—made one of his last public appearances at a special screening in honor of the film's 50th anniversary.

Mat Hayward/Getty Images

"I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair," he said during the event in September, per The Hollywood Reporter. "That’s very limiting."

As the Home Alone 2 star joked, "I won’t be singing and I won’t be dancing very soon. I still have real problems with my left leg."

And in the months leading up to his death, Curry kept the same positive outlook, sharing a candid perspective on what was to come.

“I don’t fear death. I try to avoid it,” he told CBS Sunday Morning. “I think we all do, but I suspect that in the end, I will welcome it. I think it may be very comforting to go bye-bye, and I want to earn it.”

Keep reading for a look back at Curry’s extraordinary life….

Art Zelin/Getty Images

1970

Evening Standard/Getty Images

1975

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Wood/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

1975

Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

1981

Saturday Night Live

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images