Tim Curry suffered a devastating stroke during a massage which left him in a wheelchair during his final years, but credited the masseuse who spotted it with potentially saving his life.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show star, who died at the age of 80 on Tuesday night, opened up about his 2012 stroke in a candid interview which aired just last year.
Curry suffered two brain bleeds during the medical emergency, which he did not even realize was happening because he did not feel any of the symptoms as he lay on the massage table in his Los Angeles home.
'It was so strange,' Curry told CBS Sunday Morning in October 2025. 'I was 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 that I was aware of, but clearly he had noticed some.
'He called 911 and an ambulance came and they carried me down the stairs of my house on a stretcher and put me in an ambulance and gave me morphine, which was interesting. I wasn't in pain.
'I was extremely nervous because I didn't know what was going on. They didn't know I'd had a stroke and I didn't know either.
'I said, can you take me to Cedars-Sinai, which is probably the best hospital in the city, and they said they had to take me to a nearer one, which was a Kaiser Permanente.'
Late actor Tim Curry suffered a devastating stroke during a massage which left him in a wheelchair during his final years - but the masseuse potentially saved his life. He is pictured speaking about the 2012 ordeal with CBS Sunday Morning in October 2025
Tim Curry was best known for playing Dr Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Curry said that when doctors told him he had suffered a stroke, he 'thought immediately' of his father, James Curry, who survived a stroke when the Rocky Horror star was just 11 years old.
'I knew that a lot of people didn't survive a stroke, and that he was an exception, and so I was scared,' he said.
Curry said he had brain surgery and was in hospital for 'about a month' afterwards for rehabilitation.
'I had to learn how to speak again, that was very weird,' he said. 'I hated not being able to speak because I speak a lot. I have to be told to shut up a lot. I love words, I love to communicate.'
Curry, who was best known for playing Dr Frank-N-Furter in cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, died at his LA home last night, as confirmed by his manager the following day.
He had been suffering with serious health issues for more than a decade and no foul play is suspected.
After the 1973 role that made his name, Curry went on to join the cast of 1992's Home Alone 2 – playing Mr Hector, a stuffy and suspicious concierge at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
Between 2004 and 2007, Curry portrayed King Arthur in the Monty Python musical Spamalot on stage in Chicago, Broadway and the West End.
Curry is pictured in 2016 attending the red carpet premiere of The Rocky Horror Picture Show: 'Lets Do the Time Warp Again' at The Roxy in West Hollywood, California
Curry also played the concierge in Home Alone 2, as shown in the 1992 photograph above
Some of his stage credits include What About Dick? My Favorite Year and Travesties, among others.
In 2015, he was honored with The Actors Fund Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tony Awards Viewing Party in Los Angeles.
Curry opened up about his wellbeing last year during a special screening marking The Rocky Horror Picture Show's 50th anniversary.
Speaking to the audience at LA's Academy Museum, he said: 'I still can't walk, which is why I'm in this silly chair, and that's very limiting.
'So, I won't be singing and I won't be dancing very soon. I still have real problems with my left leg.'
Since the stroke, which he suffered at the age of 67, the legendary actor remained largely out of the public eye.
