“My mother inspired many of my characters through her anger”: Tim Curry revealed that his mother threatened him with a knife when he was little, and he used that memory for his villain characters

Tim Curry had a knife pointed at him. His own mother was holding it.

The British actor, who died today at the age of 80 and was known for playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, only recently revealed it in an interview marking the film’s 50th anniversary and the release of his memoir “Vagabond”.

Curry believes that his mother was suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder: everything changed when his father died and he was just 10 years old. The woman who was left in charge, he said, was no longer the same.

Years later, on the set of Rocky Horror, Curry had to emerge from a refrigerator with a bloodied axe, having just “killed” Eddie, the character played by Meat Loaf. “That was quite easy for me”, he confessed. “It was as if I knew how to do it”. There was no need to imagine the terror. I only had to remember it.