Tim Curry Played A Classic DC Comics Villain On A Hit TV Series

Tim Curry died on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, and the British actor leaves behind an incredibly varied career with a number of iconic roles on his resume. There's Stephen King's demonic clown Pennywise in the 1990 "IT" miniseries for ABC, as well as the seductive Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical horror comedy "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Of course, he's also known for plaguing Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) as the suspicious concierge, Mr. Hector, in "Home Alone 2." It's roles like these that have led to an outpouring of tributes to Tim Curry from Hollywood and audiences following his passing. 

But one of his more underrated performances is as G. Gordon Godfrey, a classic DC Comics villain in Cartoon Network's "Young Justice." The beloved series focuses on the younger heroes and sidekicks to main heroes like Superman (Nolan North), Batman (Bruce Greenwood), and Wonder Woman (Maggie Q). Curry joined the show in its 2nd season, with Godfrey pushing negative propaganda about superheroes through the media as a way of turning humanity against metahumans. 

As in the comics, Godfrey works for Darkseid in his quest to take over the universe, and the talk show host's propaganda is a tool to destabilize the Justice League. He's not a stereotypical villain, but Curry masterfully sneers lines like "Maybe I'm the only one not drinking the space cola, but has anyone asked whether Earth wants more communication with aliens?" The star ate every ounce of his dialogue with such venom you'd think the heroes had insulted him personally.

Tim Curry left the series after the 2nd season because of the stroke he had in 2012, and veteran voice actor James Arnold Taylor took on the role of G. Gordon Godfrey in the rest of "Young Justice." However, audiences were just grateful to hear Curry play a classic DC Comics villain at all, considering he missed out on voicing one of the most iconic bad guys of all time: the Joker.

Curry was originally meant to play the Joker on Fox Kids' "Batman: The Animated Series" — one of the best superhero cartoons of all time. Frustratingly, Curry recorded a handful of episodes of the series, but producers replaced him with Mark Hamill. Speaking to ScreenGeek at Fan Expo Canada in 2017, the actor briefly explained, "I did play Joker for a while, but I had bronchitis and they fired me — and hired Mark Hamill. That's life." 

While it's hard to imagine anyone other than Mark Hamill's dastardly villain in the series, the concept of Curry's menacing tones as the Clown Prince of Crime is a fascinating daydream. He already turned one iconic clown into a piece of pop culture history with Pennywise in the "IT" miniseries; there's no question he would've done something special with Joker.