Tim Curry Named an Honorary Muppet After Death, Joins Dolly Parton As Select Few With the Title

“Few humans have earned the title of honorary Muppet more than the legendary Tim Curry. As a performer he was unparalleled — witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny,” the post said. “We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver’s crew. Thank you for everything, Tim.”

The actor, who died at 80 years old, joins Dolly Parton, who also passed this week on Aug. 25, as an honorary member of the beloved puppet troupe. Others, including comedians Robin Williams and Pee-Wee Herman are also part of the extremely selective group of human Muppets.

Curry, who’s known for his role in projects ranging from “Rocky Horror Picture Show” to “Home Alone 2,” has always been fond of the puppet crew. In his 2025 memoir “Vagabond,” he describes “Muppet Treasure Island” as “one of the best pictures I ever made” and “most apex of my big films from the 1990s.” The experience was truly life-changing for the actor.

“I cannot overstate how much I adored working with the Muppets,” Curry wrote in the book. “The extraordinary thing about them is that they are all characters in their own right, and you should treat them as such.”

The film, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, revolves around the adventures of a young orphan named Jim Hawkins who gets wrapped up in a swashbuckling adventure with Curry’s Long John Silver to find buried treasure.

The film, Curry wrote in his memoir, allowed him to tap into his feelings around the death of his own father, who passed away when the actor was 12 years old.

“There’s a whole improvised scene where Silver is trying to establish a rapport and relationship between himself and young Jim,” Curry wrote. “Having lost my father at a similar age, and for that to have been such a formative time for me, made my heart go out to Jim’s character in a very authentic way. I tried to imagine how I wished people had spoken to me when I was a boy.”

Curry added that there was a “real honesty” in the way in which he delivered his lines.

“Opening myself up in such a personal way wasn’t something I’d ever really experimented with before in film, and certainly not on the stage,” Curry wrote. “I had not planned on that bit; it just happened. In the end, I was very happy with it, though; it felt like a real risk in a very different kind of way, and I was proud of how I’d pulled it off.”

When filming wrapped, Curry wrote, he found himself missing the project.

“I was genuinely saddened to return to dealing with humans again,” the actor said in the memoir.

The Muppets also have a special place in his heart for another reason. While Curry was famously committed to keeping his love life private, he was openly crazy about one particular gal: Miss Piggy. In the book, Curry describes the fabulous ham as “always funny, and never boring.”

“Although I did say at the outset that I wouldn’t speak about any of my romantic relationships, I will say that Miss Piggy and I had quite a good time together, both on set and in our trailers,” he joked. “Fortunately, our dalliances never led to any tension with Kermit—I was clever about it.”