The cause of Tim Curry’s death has been confirmed as coronary artery disease, with his previous stroke and kidney cancer also listed as significant conditions, according to documents from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health obtained by People.
Curry died at the age of 80 on August 25. The documents stated that no operations were performed for the coronary artery disease, kidney cancer or his history of stroke.
His 2012 stroke had left Curry with lasting health challenges. He suffered the stroke while receiving a massage and later described the experience as having brought him “way too close to d3@th.”
“I didn’t know it was happening at the time. They told me at the hospital and operated on my brain and removed, I think, two blood clots,” he told the New York Times in 2025. “I found that very difficult to cope with as an image.”
The stroke left him paralysed on his left side and temporarily unable to speak. Curry said the inability to talk frightened him because of his memories of his father, who had suffered a stroke at 45.
“I dreaded that. I didn’t want that to happen to me. It was very peculiar not to be able to speak, and to find a voice again was difficult,” he said.
Although Curry eventually regained his speech, he never recovered his ability to walk and relied on a wheelchair.
At a 50th anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Los Angeles in September 2025, Curry gave the audience an update on his condition.
“I still can’t walk, which is why I’m in this silly chair, and that’s very limiting,” he said.
