Summary
There isn’t an acting role Tim Curry hasn’t taken on. He’s acted on Broadway, offered his voice for animated roles, landed roles in feature films, and took part in hour-long dramas. Tim Curry has been everywhere, including everyone’s favorite police procedural,Criminal Minds. This drama lasted for 15 seasons on CBS, ending in 2020 before it returned with a 16th season that aired on Paramount Plus.
Many forget Tim Curry acted inCriminal Minds, but it was an impactful role that easily gave everyone chills. Nobody but Curry could have executed that role the way he did. It’s easy to see why his role lasted for more than one episode, and there was no better place to use him than a season finale-level episode where the stakes are the highest.
Related:Best Tim Curry Voice Roles
What is Criminal Minds About?
Criminal Mindsis a procedural crime drama in the samevein asCSIandLaw & Order. It follows a team of criminal profilers working in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) who track down and investigate various crimes by analyzing the behavior of their subjects. While it does cover a variety of crimes, it’s almost always murder that the BAU team ends up solving. The best part of the 16 seasons was seeing the new suspect they were going to track down.
One murderer killed people and threw them into tornadoes while another drugged her victims and turned them into dolls. The audience never knew what they were getting into with each episode. As surreal as those two examples sound, the writers did a fantastic job grounding the series in reality and delivered provocative cases that had the audience at the edge of their seats. Just as fascinating as the criminals were, the BAU team was equally intriguing.
There’s the ornery and wealthy leader of the team who came out of retirement to fill the leadership role, theyoung neurodivergent geniuswith an eidetic memory, the team’s moral compass and techie, the socially outgoing big brother, and a slew of other rotating team members from diverse backgrounds. While seeing the more personal stories that add layers to the characters is enjoyable, the show really takes off when they dive headfirst into a case and use their backgrounds to bring the criminals to justice.
Who did Tim Curry Play on Criminal Minds?
Tim Curry is quite the character actor known for playing some sinister characters, but his role inCriminal Mindsis a disturbing image that fans struggle to shake. It’s a true nod to his gift for acting since he only appeared in two episodes of 335 in the series. Billy “The Prince of Darkness” Flynn debuted in a two-part story that spanned the season five finale “Our Darkest Hour” and season six opener “Longest Night.” Flynn was a roving serial killer who invaded homes at night to torture, rape, and then kill the adults in the home, leaving any children alive.
TheCriminal Mindswriters had a tendency to base the show’s “unsubs” (unknown subject) on real-life criminals. They based Tim Curry’s Billy Flynn on Richard Ramirez aka The Nightstalker, a serial killer that terrorizedLos Angeles and San Franciscobetween June 1984 to August 1985. Ramirez and the fictional Flynn savagely attacked their victims in their homes during the dead of night. The one difference between the two killers, however, is that Ramirez didn’t discriminate, killing anyone of any age.
Curry’s character wandered from city to city, state to state, hopped up on meth, killing whenever the opportunity arose. Since a part of his modus operandi was striking at night, he became known as the Prince of Darkness. He often cut the power to the house he invaded, but the episodes he was present for took place during citywide rolling blackouts in Los Angeles, offering up the perfect opportunity for him to strike.
What are Tim Curry’s Most Famous Roles?
Long before the BAU hunted Tim Curry as Billy Flynn, he made a name for himself with some prolific onscreen personalities. His role as Dr. Fank-N-Furter in the cult classicThe Rocky Horror Picture Showcaught audiencesby surprise. While it didn’t perform well initially, it grew into a cultural sensation that still plays in movie theaters today on the midnight movie circuit. Fans dress up as their favorite characters and perform in tandem with the film, making it an interactive experience.
Fast forward a decade later and audiences would see Curry in a much more tamed, albeit just as comical, role inClue, the boardgame adaptation. Here, Curry plays Wadsworth, the butler of a mansion where he directs dinner guests to solve the host’s murder. His acting is over the top and campy along with the rest of the film, but it’s masterfully executed, making him the most memorable aspect of the film.
Probably what most people remember him for, whether they realize it was him or not, is his role as a clown. Not just any clown, either. Pennywise the Clown. Before Bill Skarsgård frightened audiences with his portrayal of the extradimensional being, Tim Curry put on the makeup and traumatized anyone who had to use a shower again in the first live-action adaptation ofStephen King’sIt.
