April 19 - Tim Curry

On this day, in 1946, Timothy James Curry was born in Grappenhall, Warrington, Cheshire, England. When he was just 12, his father, a chaplain with the Royal Navy, died from pneumonia. His family moved to South London and Tim began attending a boarding school, where he became a noted boy soprano. When he went to the University of Birmingham, he concentrated on his acting, graduating in 1968 with a double degree in English and Drama. Later that year he began his professional career as part of the original London cast of Hair. It was during this production that he met a young man named Richard O'Brien who changed the course of his career.

One day, Tim saw Richard on the street near his apartment. Richard mentioned he'd been to the gym looking for a bodybuilder that could sing. Tim asked why in the world anyone would need that. Richard handed him a script with the title The Rocky Horror Show on the front and the number of the guy who was going to direct the show, Jim Sharman. Tim read the script and immediately gave Jim a call.

Image courtesy rockyhorror.fandom.com

The Rocky Horror Show opened on June 19, 1973 on London's West End with Tim leading the cast as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist who speaks the Queen's English (and is a queen himself). The show was a hit and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical. It would run for over 2,900 performances before closing in 1980. Tim didn’t do most of the run but only because he followed the show when it came to the United States. He opened as the good Doctor in Los Angeles in 1974 and on Broadway in 1975. Sadly, The Great White Way wasn’t quite ready for Rocky Horror. Tim earned a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, but the show only lasted forty-five performances. It’s okay though as the slightly retooled film version (called The Rocky Horror Picture Show for those who can’t tell the difference between the stage and the screen) came out the same year and featured performers from the Broadway show (including Tim, Richard and Meatloaf) as well as more folks from the original London cast (Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell and Jonathan Adams).

Image courtesy reddit.com

Tim took almost no time at all to return to Broadway, taking over the role of Tristan Tzara in Tom Stoppard’s Tony award winning play Travesties in 1975. When that show ended in 1976, he spent a few years taking supporting roles in films like the 1978 British horror film The Shout and starring on television as the title character in a miniseries about William Shakespeare. He returned to the stage in 1980 as part of the original Broadway cast of Amadeus, again playing the title role. Both Tim and co-star Ian McKellen were nominated for Tony Awards (Ian edged Tim out for the win, but I can think of a lot worse people to lose to).

Image courtesy pinerest.com

From 1981 on, Tim has remained a busy, in-demand actor. Whether he was hosting Saturday Night Live (with musical guest Meatloaf, of course) or earning an Emmy nomination for an episode of Tales from the Crypt, Tim brings a level of professionalism and, yes I’m going to say it, camp to everything he does. Highlights from his career include Wadsworth in Clue (another cult classic and one of my personal favorites), Darkness in Ridley Scott’s Legend and Pennywise the Clown in the television adaptation of Stephen King’s It. But Tim shows up all over the place, like as the hotel manager in Home Alone 2, on an episode of Will and Grace or in his own (albeit short lived) show, Over the Top (see what I mean about camp; even his sitcom knows who he is).

Image copyright Nickelodeon

One of the arenas that Tim has shined in the most has been the world of voice acting. He spent five seasons playing intrepid documentarian Nigel Thornberry on Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys. He spent another three seasons playing Captain Hook on the Fox series Peter Pan and the Pirates, for which he finally got some bling for his mantel in the form of a Daytime Emmy Award. Tim has also done extensive work recording audio books. For anyone who needs a few hour fix of his distinctive voice, they can search out his versions of A Series of Unfortunate Events, A Christmas Carol and even the book about the original Transylvanian, Dracula.

Image copyright Disney

Tim is a robust part of the Disney family. He first joined in 1993 as Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers. Three years later he sunk his teeth into Long John Silver for Muppet Treasure Island (he is arguably the best part of that film). The following year he gave voice to Forte, the villain in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (there is something awfully fitting about Dr. Frank-N-Furter telling the Beast “don’t fall in love”). He’s also done television roles on TaleSpin (Thaddeos E. Klang), Darkwing Duck (Taurus Bulba), Dinosaurs, Disney’s The Little Mermaid (Evil Manta), Aladdin, Gargoyles (Dr. Anton Sevarius), Mighty Ducks, Quack Pack (Moltoc), Recess, Teacher’s Pet, Higglytown Heroes, Phineas and Ferb and he took over the role of Emperor Palpatine on Star Wars: Clone Wars when the original actor passed away. He even has a somewhat bizarre rendition of The Ballad of Davy Crockett that was released on an album called Disney’s Music from the Park (as much as I like Tim, this recording is just phenomenally bad; I’m really not sure how it made it onto the cd).

Image courtesy playbill.com

In 2007, Tim experienced another triumphant return to Broadway as King Arthur in Spamalot, a stage adaptation of another cult classic from 1975, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He was again nominated for a Tony award and, after moving with the production to London’s West End, earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination back in his home town. Unfortunately, Spamalot would be something of a last hurrah for Tim. While I've very deliberately talked about Tim and his career in the present tense for this post, as many of his fans know, he's enjoyed better health than of late. In mid 2012, he dropped off the face of the earth, leaving many to wonder what was going on. Later it was revealed that he suffered a massive stroke in July of that year, leaving him wheelchair bound, and for a time, speechless. Since then he's made remarkable progress. He still requires a motorized chair to get around, but was able to play the part of the Criminologist in the live production of Rocky Horror on Fox in 2016. He now frequently makes the rounds of conventions, greeting legions of fans and displaying his unconventional (if now a bit subdued) humor. Will he ever recover enough to return to the stage? Only time will tell. But I can tell you this:even if he had to spend the whole time on a souped up Hover-round, it would be so delightfully campy that you'd forget why he was in it in the first place. And that's why I wish Tim all the best and look forward to whatever comes next. Happy birthday to our favorite Transylvanian!

November 24 - Billy Connolly

On this day, in 1942, Sir William Connolly was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His family lived in a two room flat until he was four. At that time, with his father off fighting in Burma with the Royal Air Force, his mother ran off with another man and Billy and his sister moved in with two of their aunts. When his father returned from war, Billy would suffer years of abuse at his hands. He can remember making the decision that he wanted to spend his life making people laugh after falling in a puddle at the age of 8 and hearing the sound he rarely heard at home. It's clearly an understatement to say that Billy's childhood was rubbish.

When Billy left school at the age of 15, he took two engineering qualifications with him (although one of them was given to him by mistake). When he turned 16, he began an apprenticeship with a welding shop as a boilermaker. His term ended when he was 21 and he would stay on at the shop for another year. By the time he was 24, Billy would have sparked his last weld in favor of a career in entertainment.

After watching an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies, Billy bought himself a banjo and decided to focus on being a folk singer. He joined forces with a man named Tam Harvey, creating a duo called the Humblebums. Eventually they were joined by a third bloke, released a record, lost the third bloke, released two more records and broke up. The records were critical, if not particularly financial, successes. Following the end of the Humblebums, Billy tried starting a solo career, but the comical introductions to his songs kept getting longer and longer. Finally, his record producer suggested that he forgo singing for a career in comedy.

In 1972, Billy made both his theatrical debut (in a revue titled Connolly's Glasgow Flourish) and his first solo album, Billy Connolly Live! The following year, his next album, Solo Concert, made him famous throughout Britain. Throughout the rest of the Seventies, Billy would continue to build on that fame and export his name to other countries, like New Zealand and Canada. A brief tour in the US as the opening act for Elton John, however, only proved that Americans for the most part can't understand a Scottish accent.

During the Eighties, Billy would continue his stand up, appear in multiple films, show up regularly on British television, promote all sorts of charitable causes and nearly drink himself to death. His first marriage ended after 16 years in the first part of the decade. In the middle of the decade, he became a teetotaler. By the end, his second marriage had begun (and continues to this day).

In the Nineties, Billy would finally gain fame in America. After starring in an HBO special with Whoopi Goldberg, he would replace Howard Hesseman as the teacher on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class for the final season. A couple of world tours and multiple part BBC specials would help round out the decade.

Billy became part of the Disney family in 1995 as the voice of Ben, a shipmate of John Smith, in Pocahontas. The following year, he narrated Muppet Treasure Island as Billy Bones. His third Disney role came sixteen years later when he headed up the Scot heavy cast of 2012's Brave as the singing patriarch King Fergus.

For the better part of the 21st century (the better part of what's happened so far), Billy has continued to make both comedic and dramatic appearances on television, the silver screen (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) and more stand-up tours. Along the way, he's won a BAFTA award, gotten a Screen Actor's Guild nomination, become a member of the Order of the British Empire, been declared the top comedian by BBC's Channel Four (twice) and been fully knighted. Six years ago, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement from touring at an exhibition of his art in his new home in Florida. Whether or not we'll see any more spectacular performances from the funnyman will depend entirely on how his disease progresses. With any luck, Billy has more than a few left in him.