Tragic news to report today: veteran Wing Commander actor Tim Curry has passed away at age 80. Curry is known around the world for his endless acting credits, which included everything from Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to the crazed Russian leader famously ranting about space in Command and Conquer 3. But Wing Commander fans know him best as Prince Thrakhath's chee’dyachee Melek, the alternatively groveling-and-scheming alien vizier who steals the show in the game's various cuts to the Kilrathi (he also recorded many of the generic Kilrathi taunts). You can read a more complete obituary at The Hollywood Reporter.
In addition to his seemingly endless and endlessly significant filmography, Tim Curry is also remembered for being a solid human being. Social media today is full of endless stories of his casual kindness to fans and others that he encountered. For such a life, even 80 years is not enough. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.
Wing Commander's Mark Hamill had an interesting connection with Curry throughout this career: they often worked on the same projects but never at the same time. Hamilly succeeded Curry as the star of Amadeus on Broadway during its original run and they appeared in both Gabriel Knight and Wing Commander III together in the 90s... but they never worked together! (Since Curry voiced Melek, he recorded his lines after the fact rather than on set with the physical puppet.) Asked about this at the time, Hamill said:
“People ask me what is was like working with Tim Curry but I don’t know, because I never met him when we did the project. I’d met him before but when we recorded Gabriel Knight I was in the studio on my own. Just me and the director, in Wing 3 you’re actually on the set and doing scenes with real, live actors.Tim Curry was not available to perform Melek in Wing Commander IV and was replaced by Barry Dennen who passed away in 2017.
