Black Hollywood remembers Tim Curry as fans mourn a familiar face from childhood
TheGrio...
Ben Vereen and O’Shea Jackson Jr. joined fans in paying tribute to the acclaimed actor following his death at 80.
The death of Tim Curry has prompted tributes across Hollywood, with members of the Black entertainment community also turning to social media to remember an actor whose work reached audiences across generations.
Ben Vereen only met Tim Curry briefly, but the encounter clearly stayed with him. The Tony winner posted a tribute to Instagram following news of Curry’s death at 80, recalling the period when he joined a production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Vereen wrote that being in Curry’s presence was a gift, describing his talent as extraordinary and his spirit as radiant, and crediting him with inspiring the entire cast as they worked to honor what the original company had built. He closed by calling Curry a remarkable artist and a gracious man.
O’Shea Jackson Jr. kept his considerably shorter, posting a two-line message to X marking both Curry’s death and Dolly Parton’s, which came days earlier.
The Shade Room reported that more than 18,000 reactions hit its comment section within an hour of posting the news, with the grief tangled up in exhaustion over a punishing stretch of celebrity deaths. One commenter simply wrote, “AUGUST CHILL MAN WTF!!!!!!!” Another observed, “Not Dolly & Pennywise in the same week! I am goneeeeeee!”
Rip Dolly Parton.
Rip Tim Curry
— O’Shea Jackson Jr (@OsheaJacksonJr) August 26, 2026
Others turned toward something closer to reflection. “Mannnn my childhood is damn near gone,” one wrote. Someone else pushed back gently on the collective panic, noting that many of those being mourned were old and had lived full lives, adding, “we all will have to go. Just stay prayed up and do what’s right.”
For Black millennials in particular, Curry occupied a specific corner of childhood memory. He was Pennywise in the 1990 “It” miniseries, the concierge who trailed Kevin through the Plaza in “Home Alone 2,” and Professor Oldman in “Scary Movie 2,” a role that put him inside a franchise built substantially on Black comedic sensibilities. That range explains why the mourning has stretched across communities rather than settling in one.
Curry died Tuesday night at his Toluca Lake home in Los Angeles. His manager confirmed he passed peacefully. No cause has been released, though he had lived with the effects of a 2012 stroke that left him unable to walk and using a wheelchair, something he addressed candidly in his memoir and at public appearances.