“Do Tim Curry proud,” my friend Simon said to me when he heard I was writing about him. Simon is, admittedly, a Tim Curry fan extraordinaire whose go-to karaoke song is "I’m Going Home" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, which Curry himself sang with mournful gravitas both on stage and in the 1975 film. Yet it also encapsulates the way in which the actor and singer, who has died aged 80, became an extraordinarily beloved part of the pop cultural landscape and remained that way for decades. Even a debilitating stroke in 2012, which forced him into a wheelchair and largely ended his on-screen career, could not damage the Englishman’s inimitable reputation as someone who made audiences laugh – a lot – and, when the occasion arose, tantalized or terrified them as well.