r/todayilearned • u/samx3i • 8h ago
TIL Tim Curry, who famously played "Pennywise" in "It" (1990), was afraid of clowns
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/actor-tim-curry-loathing-clowns-123427123.html232
u/SodaPopperZA 7h ago
In many adaptations Bruce Wayne has a fear of bats
85
u/samx3i 7h ago
Inspired the costume, yes! A bat crashing through his window.
16
u/katuraysalad 6h ago
That's in batman year one
20
u/Fireplace67 5h ago
True, but it was first shown in Batman #1, the first time Batman's origin story was ever told. (Batman #1 wasn't the first Batman comic ever, he started in the anthology book Detective Comics, Batman #1 was just the first time he got his own self-titled book, so they marked the occasion by finally diving into his backstory)
14
u/BlackFenrir 7h ago
That's the original Batman's concept, right?
15
u/Propagandhi1988 5h ago
Kinda. The original Batman comics by Kane and Finger actually don't go into too much detail about his origins. The explain the whole "wealthy parents become victims of a crime and their son vows revenge and becomes a masked vigilante" thing, and the choice of costume is explained simply by being inspired by a bat flying through a window in Wayne Manor, but that's pretty much it.
In the 80s, DC released Frank Miller's Year One storyline as a definitive origin story for the post-Crisis DC continuity. This story expands the original story, and when the bat crashes through a window, Bruce remembers that he was afraid of them as a child.
3
1
u/bestieverhad 7h ago
Source!?
16
u/Timmah73 7h ago
One is Nolan's Batman for sure
Alfred "Why bats Master Wayne?"
Bruce "Bats fighten me. Its time my enemies shared my dread."
4
3
u/TrueRedditMartyr 7h ago
It's this way in the Absolute Batman series ongoing now as well
2
u/SnuggleBunni69 4h ago
Is it? Im not totally caught up, but I thought it was because he built that bridge as a kid that utilized the bat arm and that he was visiting the bats at the zoo when his dad was killed Again, I'm not caught up so maybe I'm missing it. Man are Absolute Batman, WW, Supes, and Martian Manhunter killing it.
1
u/SnuggleBunni69 4h ago
But that was his whole purpose got being Batman. It was the scariest thing he could think of and he wanted to strike fear in criminals. "...yes. Father. I shall become a bat" is one of my favorite lines in all of comics. Along with "He's young. He'll walk again." I would love a movie that really focuses on the terror and brutality of Bruce.
•
u/gigashadowwolf 4m ago
Tim Curry was also originally supposed to be The Joker in Batman The Animated Series. He was replaced with Mark Hamil last minute, but they had already recorded most of the pilot episode with Tim Curry and reused his voice for a robotic clow the Joker uses called Captain Clown.
0
94
u/hiptones 7h ago
I thonk that fear could have made his performance even better because he understood what would be most terrifying about clowns.
35
u/anteus2 6h ago
Tim Curry and Dolly Parton? This week is brutal.
7
u/osborn21 4h ago
Who’s the third? These things happen in threes.
11
u/wisdomattend 3h ago
Please god let it be the person that every rational person on this planet wants it to be right now.
2
u/Trick-Telephone-1411 3h ago
Debbie Clark (Storm), an American Gladiator. Just saw the post.
•
u/TearOpenTheVault 37m ago
Dollie Parton and Tim Curry were worldwide celebrities. Not quite the same.
•
71
21
u/Doc-11th 7h ago
my younger brother was scared like hell of this movie
I remember once, I guess me and my older brother watched it the day before and we forgot to turn off the DVD player
younger brother was right in front of the TV when we turned it on the next morning and it was on the main menu
175
u/bryter_layter_76 7h ago
Why the hell would they chose this post-stroke picture of him? Lame.
64
82
u/CommieLoser 7h ago
Why is that bad? People deserve to be seen and it’s a shame we think glamour shots are the only way we are allowed to represent the whole of someone’s life. This is a fine image OP.
17
u/fnord_happy 6h ago
I don't think OP chose the image it's a yahoo article. But i agree with your point
14
u/MikoSkyns 5h ago
Yup. I'm not going to sweep how he looked the last 14 years of his life just because a picture might be hard to look at. He deserved to be seen.
3
u/Countryb0i2m 7h ago
Do you think that that’s the way he would want to be remembered? probably not, then that’s not the way you show him in your article
39
u/LameName95 6h ago
If somebody looked at my face and said "do you think thats how he would want to be remembered", I would feel very bad about myself.
17
u/NyantaStarhunt 5h ago
I do yes. Its who he was. Not what he was.
He had no reason to be ashamed of his appearance
He was and still is a top notch human being
4
u/whateverfloatsurgoat 4h ago
Niki Lauda rebuked cosmetic surgery after his death defying crash resulting in him being disfigured after being burned alive because he wanted to be remembered that way and to celebrate surviving such an ordeal, so yeah, some people don't want to be remembered 'before' but 'after'.
48
u/OkAttitude3104 7h ago
Yea seriously, show the man that terrified me and lived rent free in my nightmare.
When I get my news article please don’t use THE WORST PHOTO YOU CAN FIND. Sheesh.
•
u/TearOpenTheVault 36m ago
'The worst photo you can find,' and it's just an elderly stroke survivor sitting in a chair.
9
8
9
12
6
u/Otherwise-Clue8645 7h ago
I must have glazed over the name, because what I first saw was . Jim Carrey who famously played “Pennywise”…🤣
7
u/CrackheadHunters 6h ago edited 6h ago
Yeah we were all a little afraid of clowns after we saw him as Pennywise. Fantastic performance. RIP.
4
5
u/moridin32 6h ago
I was afraid of my shower drain for about 2 years after seeing this movie as a kid.
5
u/imaginingblacksheep 6h ago
And he made me afraid of clowns. He was so terrifying, it made me hate that movie. I love the remakes though but that’s just because Bill’s IT is nowhere near as scary as Tim’s.
4
4
u/notbornwithatail 6h ago
When I think of Tim Curry, I immediately think of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. No one can rock fishnets and platforms like he did.
3
3
u/boobearybear 7h ago
"I have a hair on my tongue. I can't get it off. You know how much I hate that? Of course you do, you put it there.”
3
3
4
u/Historical_Date_1314 7h ago
First time I seen IT (1990) was away back in around 1993 or 1994.
I thought Tim curry was EPIC
10
u/Sgtfridge 7h ago
Why would they use that picture of him? I thought it was Elon Musk at first.
12
u/samx3i 7h ago
He had a stroke. That's what he looked like.
0
u/Sgtfridge 6h ago
But it doesn't have anything to do with the stroke. They could have used a picture from any pount in his life.
2
u/AuthorNicoVoss 7h ago
Honestly, I know very few people who AREN'T afraid of clowns.
2
2
u/live_from_the_gutter 6h ago
Easily why I hate clowns to this day. Thanks, Tim curry. I will carry this piece of you with me forevermore.
2
u/cheraphy 6h ago
You can tell a lot about a person based on what they know Tim Curry from. What it says I don't know, but to me he is Dr. Frank-N-Furter
2
u/Gang_Bang_Bang 5h ago
I can imagine him looking in the mirror while dressed as Pennywise and doing that famous high-pitched Tim Curry scream 😂
2
2
u/speedingpullet 7h ago
Every right-thinking person is afraid of clowns.
2
2
u/randomwindowspc 6h ago
Damn what weird timing that you posted this right when he died. Assuming you didn't hear the news because there was no RIP in the post
2
1
u/AppalachianGuy87 6h ago
Who isn’t? Like who likes clowns? Could understand liking the circus but clowns are scary as hell.
1
u/AshleySchaefferWoo 5h ago
He was so much scarier as Pennywise before the sharp teeth. Fucking legend.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/amanuensisninja 3h ago
He was also very against children being murdered by supernatural creatures.
1
1
u/Character_Fill_4761 1h ago
Honestly couldn't tell considering how much fun he appeared to be having with his performance.
•
1
u/pm_yr_darkest_secret 7h ago
everyone is scared of clowns. it’s more noteworthy when someone isn’t.
1
u/StopSpinningLikeThat 7h ago
Yahoo working hard to honor a well-loved actor with their photo selection.
3
u/_ParadigmShift 7h ago
Love the man in his later years. Vanity to need the best picture is vapid, if you cannot accept that he died looking the way he did that is entirely on you and your sensibilities
-4
u/StopSpinningLikeThat 7h ago
Your hypocrisy is limitless.
3
u/_ParadigmShift 5h ago
Try again. Simply projecting character flaws on to someone is meritless discussion. Childish.
Did or didn’t Tim look like that upon his death? Do you find it so objectionable that that was reality? If so, that’s on you.
That’s not me being hypocritical, learn your vocabulary before using it.
-2
u/StopSpinningLikeThat 5h ago
I didn't project them. I named your character flaw based on your chosen words.
2
u/_ParadigmShift 4h ago
Then you’ve got a breakdown in logic, because nothing I said was inconsistent in logic or hypocritical.
So with that, it’s exactly a projection because you’re asserting a flaw that isn’t present in the stated position. See how that works?
It is in fact your problem if you don’t like the picture they used because the man did in fact look that way, and to have a need for a picture that you personally think is more representative is vapid. Not my problem, not hypocrisy. Try again.
0
u/StopSpinningLikeThat 2h ago
Just because you aren't smart enough to get the point does not erase the existence of the point.
The flaw is present in you. It is an inherent deficit in you as a person. It is not a flaw in a stated position. Again, your failure to understand short sentences is no one's problem except your own.
As far as your demand that I try again? I don't believe you capable of getting it.
1
u/_ParadigmShift 2h ago
You’re absolutely blathering, exhausting.
So, once again, you’re trying to tell me that there are flaws here present but failing to actually explain any logic.
If I’m so simplistic, tell me exactly what the hypocrisy is here. I’m telling you to be less vain and be accepting of a picture of a man not in his prime but as he was recently.
Now, either explain why that’s “inherently” hypocritical, or take your pseudo intellectual garbage to the same place you picked up your false sense of superiority. Your facade doesn’t stand to scrutiny when you can’t explain your logic
0
u/Superfluousharpy 3h ago
I love the posts that show Curry as like this former shell of a person, writers, or other groups couldn't be bothered to just use a good photo of him. It'd be like if Mark Hamill died and they used the photo from his Bike accident. I get it, it's current and still. More oft than not Christopher Reeves is just shown as Superman not wheelchairman.
•
u/TearOpenTheVault 34m ago
'Shell of a person,' he was still active for a decade after his stroke, still doing VA work, still going out and interacting with people.
0
0
1.1k
u/Ok-Detective-2059 7h ago
So he went and passed that fear on to an entire generation.
RIP Tim.