Appreciation: Tim Curry proudly gave us permission to let our freak flags fly

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred After Tim Curry finished playing the flamboyant Dr.Frank-N-Furter — first onstage, then in the 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — the actor never returned to the role that made him famous.

Not once, over decades of “Rocky Horror” revivals from the West End to Broadway, did he ever put those fishnets back on.For Curry, who died Tuesday at 80 in Los Angeles, there were too many characters to play, and too much fun to be had, for him to spend much time looking back.“I’ve always moved on,” Curry told me last year, sitting in the Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip, where he’d played Frank to great acclaim in 1974, after originating the role in London.“That was part of the attraction of being an actor.

I really didn’t want to come out of the same box every time.” Last year, as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was being celebrated for its 50th anniversary, he agreed to meet at the Roxy, which he called “another home for me.” The stage show there had been a local sensation, and it was clear he still had pride and great affection for his role in the movie adaptation, which remains the longest continuous theatrical release in film history.As Dr.Frank-N-Furter in ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ Tim Curry gave life to more than a creation named Rocky — he was the foundation of my friendship with my sister.

A stroke in 2012 left him partially paralyzed, interrupting a busy acting career.But he was quick to laugh and joke as he remembered playing Frank, including his nightly entrance at the Roxy, marching down a catwalk in heels and Dracula cape.

The long life that “Rocky Horror” has enjoyed as a midnight movie, with shadow casts of costumed fans lip-syncing along, was a surprise to everyone.Frank-N-Furter was a vivid invitation to fans to let their own freak flag fly.Even amid the era’s accelerating glam rock movement, “Rocky Horror” pushed the ...