New documents reveal Tim Curry’s cause of death aged 80

The world is still mourning the tragic death of the multi-talentedTim Curry aged 80.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show actor known for loving playing the villain had struggled with ill health towards the end of his life.

After a stroke in 2012 left him partially paralysed, the actor retreated from the spotlight.

Dispatch audio obtained by TMZ revealed police responded to a death investigation last Tuesday at Curry’s home in Los Angeles.

Documents seen by People magazine have now revealed that Curry died of coronary artery disease.

The actor’s long history of strokes with kidney cancer were also listed as potential contributors to his death.

What is coronary artery disease?

Coronary heart disease happens when your heart’s blood supply is blocked or interrupted by a build-up of fatty substances in the coronary arteries.

Over time, the walls of your arteries can become furred up with fatty deposits. This process is known as atherosclerosis and the fatty deposits are called atheroma.

Atherosclerosis can be caused by lifestyle factors, such as smoking and regularly drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.

The main symptoms of coronary heart disease are:

• chest pain (angina)
• shortness of breath
• pain in your neck, shoulders, jaw or arms
• feeling faint
• feeling sick (nausea)

But not everyone has the same symptoms and some people may not have any before coronary heart disease is diagnosed.

What had he said about his health struggles prior to his death?

Curry gave rare insight into his health problems in October at a special screening last to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Academy Museum in LA, revealing ‘real problems’.

‘I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair, and that’s very limiting,’ he told the audience at the 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.’

He also gave more detail about his stroke, sharing that he had been having a massage and hadn’t realised that anything unusual was occurring.

‘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.

His stroke was not made public until almost a year later, when his rep confirmed it in 2013.

Later in October 2025, his memoir Vagabond was published, in which he said more on the circumstances of his stroke, revealing that even as he was being loaded into the ambulance, he was unconvinced that anything was wrong, feeling instead ‘that we were going through a ridiculous and unnecessary exercise’.

‘I probably owe my life to the fact that he ignored me, went with his instinct, and called an ambulance,’ Curry said of his masseuse.

While his mobility was permanently impacted, after several weeks of limited speech – which Tim described as ‘hell’ – he managed to make a full vocal recovery and leaned on his skills as a voice actor.

Curry burst onto the scene as the Transylvanian Frank-N-Furter in the sci-fi, cross-dressing rock musical The Rocky Horror Show which premiered in 1973 at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

He went with it to Broadway and then starred in the 1975 cult-classic movie alongside Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf and Susan Sarandon.

The show was ahead of its time in terms of its representation of LGBTQ+ characters and has entered the pop culture lexicon for its many iconic and memorable scenes, including the song ‘The Time Warp’ and the often-quoted phrase, ‘Dammit, Janet!’