Friends of Tim Curry have revealed that the actor "wanted to die" in his final years, after a devastating stroke left him partially paralysed and struggling to speak.
Curry died "peacefully" at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, aged 80. He was best known for his leading role as Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, both on stage and in the beloved film adaptation. He also appeared in Home Alone 2, Clue, Annie, Muppet Treasure Island and FernGully: The Last Rainforest, as well as TV shows including It and The Wild Thornberrys.
Stroke's devastating toll
In 2012, Curry suffered a major stroke that left him partially paralysed and struggling to speak. He retreated from the limelight but continued to work, often taking voiceover roles after making a full vocal recovery.
An insider has now revealed that the past few years had "taken a tremendous toll on his health".
"He was such a lively and animated person with so much talent in his fingertips that he missed the life that he had before his devastating stroke, as it took so much from him," an insider told the Daily Mail.
Friends' final insight
Tim's friends also insist that he "wasn't afraid" of death and had still been "grateful for life and the life he had".
"Though sad, since Tim still had a zest for life, it also comes as a small relief to people who really knew him and knew how he was feeling the last few years," a source told the publication.
"Some of his friends think he was, in a way, happy to finally go because it was hard for him," they added.
However, filmmaker Michael Leavy, who directed Curry in 2020's Stream and had been working with him on the sequel, said that even after his stroke, "Tim maintained that unmistakable sense of humour, wit, warmth, and charm that made him so uniquely genuine".
His own words on recovery
Curry previously opened up about his health struggles after the stroke.
"I still can't walk, which is why I'm in this silly chair, and that's very limiting," he told the audience at an event, adding: "So I won't be singing and I won't be dancing very soon. I still have real problems with my left leg."
His stroke was not made public until a year after it occurred in 2012.
"I was having a massage at the time, and I didn't even actually notice anything, but the guy who was doing the massage said, 'I'm worried about you, I want to call an ambulance.' And he did, and I said, 'That's so silly'," Curry recalled, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
"I probably owe my life to the fact that he ignored me, went with his instinct, and called an ambulance," Tim said of his masseuse.
Doctors performed a craniectomy to relieve pressure on his brain and told him that he had suffered "a serious stroke, which sent blood clots to my brain, two of which had been removed".
