Because this week evidently decided it hadn’t already taken enough beloved 80-year-olds from us, Tim Curry passed away Tuesday night. A king of camp, many remember Curry for scene-stealing roles in movies like Clue, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and of course, Muppet Treasure Island. But he also loved popping up in video games, a perfect fit for his inimitably over-the-top stylings.
According to Moby Games, Curry ultimately appeared in 22 games. While some of these were licensed fare—Curry voiced Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys, after all—his gameography is littered with heavy hitters including Gabriel Knight,Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Brütal Legend, Dragon Age: Origins, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. The latter role pretty much guarantees Curry’s immortality all by itself thanks to a line read so good that Vice dedicated a whole oral history to it.
“I’m escaping to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism,” Curry, as Premier Anatoly Cherdenko, bellows, half-panting, half-convulsing with unbridled enthusiasm. Then he blurts the piece de resistance so hard that you can practically feel his spittle on your face: “Space!”
JOSHUA BASCHE (assistant cinematics editor, Red Alert 3): It’d be these long takes of them just sitting there reading a teleprompter as lines came up. It was towards the end of the day, and you could kind of tell Curry was tired, he wanted to get out of there. But then that line comes up. And you saw the smile pop onto his face when he read it through first. The first take was that take.
IVANA MILIČEVIĆ (“Dasha,” Red Alert 3): When I saw that, I was like, “I know you’ve been sitting there for hours.”
MICAL PEDRIANA (story and cinematics producer, Red Alert 3): Everyone was busting up.
JOSHUA BASCHE: It’s so bombastic. It’s so fantastic.
STUART ALLISON (cinematic editor,Red Alert 3): This is fucking brilliant. I love this. This is Frank N. Furter, for me.
IVANA MILIČEVIĆ: Was he making fun of it? Or was he having fun?
CHRIS CORRY (executive producer, Red Alert 3): He was ready to bring the ham. I don’t think he was breaking at all.
JOSHUA BASCHE: I think he did exactly what he wanted to do.
HARIS ORKIN (cinematics writer, Red Alert 3): You could see he knew how ridiculous this was. But he kind of played it that way, almost. A little different than everybody else.
STUART ALLISON: I think he was aware he was about to break but he finished the take because he knew it could be used. He knew he was doing it brilliantly.
MICAL PEDRIANA: He’s a professional. I don’t think he did a lot of stuff by accident.
“He didn’t die, he simply escaped to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism,” reads a comment made today on a YouTube video of the clip, echoing the same sentiment as countless others.
In honor of a man who could bring gravitas even to the silliest moments, here’s more highlights from Curry’s video game voice (and regular) acting career:
That Dragon Age clip, especially, suggests that even as somebody who came up before video games exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry, game roles weren’t just a job to Curry; he found them legitimately interesting.
“The opportunities are limitless, really,” he said. “That’s what fascinates me about [the game]. And the opportunities for the gamer within the game are limitless. … So if you engage in this game, and you might recognize my voice, I hope it will be able to seduce you into getting further and further embroiled in my dark, dark world until I eventually meet my fate.”
Great words, but as with all things Curry, I imploreyou to go watch his delivery of them.
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