00:00We're trying to find out who killed him, and where, and with what.
00:04There's no need to shout!
00:05I'm not shouting!
00:08All right, I am!
00:09I'm shouting!
00:10I'm shouting!
00:11I'm shouting!
00:14It's Sunday morning on CBS, and here again is Seth Doan.
00:21Actor Tim Curry has made a career of playing unforgettable villains and delightfully eccentric characters.
00:28This morning, he's reflecting on more than five decades in the spotlight with our Ben Mankiewicz.
00:35Dr. Frankenfurter loves to garden.
00:38He does.
00:39A stroke 13 years ago left Tim Curry partially paralyzed.
00:46But it hasn't diminished his memorable laugh or the mystique about him.
00:53In 50 years on the screen, he's played so many types.
00:58Campy, funny, menacingly sinister.
01:03Yet his most inscrutable role is still Tim Curry, which is exactly how he wants it.
01:11You're a bit of an enigma.
01:13I think it's important.
01:15I encourage it.
01:17Though Curry is out with a memoir, Vagabond, some secrets he's keeping to himself.
01:24One of the keys is to not encourage an identity, I think, and I've tried to nurse that.
01:34You've protected that.
01:35I have protected that and continue to.
01:40Born a military brat in Hong Kong, Curry grew up moving from place to place.
01:46As a boy, he worshipped his dad, a chaplain in the British Royal Navy.
01:51Tell me about the last time you saw your father.
01:53He had a stroke and as they were about to take him into the ambulance, he said, look after your
02:02mother.
02:03You were 10 years old?
02:05Yeah, I was 10.
02:06After his father's death, there was no one to buffer the impact of his mother, who'd be kind one minute,
02:12then cruel the next.
02:14I actually think now that she was probably bipolar, because she could turn on a dime.
02:23Acting offered Curry an escape from his mother's moods and access to so many different lives.
02:30Do you remember what excited you about it?
02:34The freedom of being somebody else.
02:39And I think that I was, like everybody else, drawn to the idea of fame, probably, although I came to
02:51kind of rather despise it.
02:53Give me a hand with hair.
02:55His first nibble of fame came from his first paid gig in the 1968 London production of Hair.
03:02And that was a big deal.
03:04It was a big deal.
03:09Hair was nothing in comparison to what came next.
03:13The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
03:15First on stage, then the movie.
03:19Well, you got caught with a flat world.
03:22How about that?
03:24He joked that he got the part of Dr. Frankenfurter because of his legs.
03:30Such an effort, if he only knew of my plan.
03:35It was a transformative performance for Curry and the audience.
03:40And what was specific about it to you that made it unique?
03:45He had a lot of power, Frank.
03:47He gave a lot of teenagers permission to be different.
03:54And I'm very happy that he did have that power.
03:59Rocky Horror earned Curry stardom.
04:01It did not earn him praise or even respect from his mother.
04:06Your mother lived well into your success.
04:09She did.
04:09Yeah.
04:10Although she didn't make much of it.
04:15She never said, oh my God.
04:17No, she was scared of it.
04:19Scared of what?
04:20Well, she said to me later that I thought your head was going to grow too big.
04:25She would have preferred me to operate under the radar.
04:31You did not operate.
04:33Unsuccessful.
04:33I never did.
04:34I didn't give a about the radar.
04:36When Frank is committing his particularly most famous act in the Rocky Horror Picture Show,
04:43is some of that directed at your mom, maybe?
04:44It's not directed at her.
04:46It's just channeling.
04:48Rocky Horror set up Curry to play some memorable screen villains.
04:53Give it to me, boy.
04:56Under a mountain of prosthetics and legend opposite Tom Cruise.
05:02Aren't you going to say hello?
05:04As Pennywise in It.
05:07See you in your dreams.
05:09Rooster.
05:10Seth.
05:12You're supposed to be in jail.
05:15They let me out early.
05:17And in Annie, as Carol Burnett's scheming and duplicitous brother.
05:21You loved working with her.
05:23I loved her to bits.
05:25Mr. McAllister.
05:27And don't forget the hotel concierge in Home Alone 2.
05:31This is an emergency.
05:33There's an insane guest with a gun.
05:36You must be Mr. Green.
05:37Yeah.
05:38Seth.
05:39Or the manipulative butler in Clue.
05:42I'm merely a humble butler.
05:44What exactly do you do?
05:45I buttle, sir.
05:46It's a great line.
05:47It's...
05:47I enjoyed it.
05:50But then came 2012.
05:52And the moment that changed Tim Curry's life.
05:56Tell me what happened.
05:58It was so strange.
06:00I was actually having a massage.
06:04And the guy who was giving me a massage said,
06:08I'm worried about you.
06:09I think we should call a doctor.
06:12But you felt fine.
06:13I felt fine.
06:13I had no symptoms that I was aware of.
06:17I wasn't in pain.
06:18When did you hear that it was a stroke?
06:20When I was in the hospital.
06:22You must have thought immediately of your father.
06:25I thought immediately of my dad.
06:28So I was scared.
06:30And then you had surgery.
06:32I had brain surgery.
06:33You had invasive, serious brain surgery.
06:35Yeah, I did.
06:36And I had a certain amount of rehabilitation.
06:40You had to learn how to speak again.
06:41I had to learn how to speak again.
06:43That was very weird.
06:45I hated not being able to speak.
06:48You have paralysis on your left side, right?
06:51Yeah.
06:52My face kind of went sideways.
06:55From reading the book and from talking to the people who care about you,
06:58there hasn't been a lot.
06:59I'm sure there was some self-pity.
07:01But it doesn't sound like there was a lot.
07:04I don't think so.
07:04I hope not.
07:05Because I don't admire self-pity much.
07:08Yeah.
07:10Another legacy from my mother, I guess.
07:12It's one that I'm thankful for.
07:15Why are you so important that we have to pity you?
07:22Right.
07:22Yeah.
07:23Now 80, he's reached an age he didn't think he'd see in 2012.
07:29Fourteen years later, Tim Curry is not remotely afraid of dying.
07:34Though exactly what he means remains, fittingly, a mystery.
07:40I don't fear death.
07:42I try to avoid it.
07:46As I think we all do.
07:49But I suspect that in the end, I will welcome it.
07:55What does that mean?
07:56Well, I think it may be very comforting to go bye-bye.
08:01And I want to earn it.
08:03You.
08:04Oh, my gosh.
08:06Oh, my gosh.
08:07Oh, my gosh.
08:08I want to hear it.
08:10Hope for you guys winning news and isn't going on.
