From Frank-N-Furter to Pennywise, Tim Curry was a master shapeshifter who could terrify and delight

Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images Actor and singer Tim Curry has died aged 80, following years of health struggles brought on by a stroke.

He will forever be remembered in popular culture as the “sweet transvestite” Dr Frank-N-Furter in the stage and screen hits, The Rocky Horror Show and the Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

However, with a career spanning more than five decades, there was much more to the singer, actor, voice actor and writer than this one erotic and exuberant role.

Tim Curry photographed on the red carpet in New York in 2011.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer An early intro to the craft Born in the quiet English village of Grappenhall in 1946, Curry’s childhood and family were as conventional as the place.

His father was a chaplain in the Royal Navy and his mother was a school secretary.

Like many children from a military family, Curry’s childhood involved frequent moves, including to the then-British colony Hong Kong.

While he would later be famed for his powerful and exuberant vocal skills, he first sang in the altogether more subdued world of church music as a boy soprano .

As a young man, Curry studied drama and English literature at Birmingham University.

This combination would be important in his career.

His early stage work included conventional classical roles in plays by Shakespeare, including in a 1971 production of the violent tragedy Titus Andronicus.

Disappearing under the brush Later, in 1978, Curry would play Shakespeare himself in the British drama series Will Shakespeare.

As the famous playwright, Curry was covered in makeup, including a hairpiece, to give him the high bald forehead seen in Shakespeare’s portraits.

Curry had instantly recognisable features, including a wide grin resembling the Cheshire cat, or the Grinch.