by 
The last few weeks have seen the passing of many famous celebrities, including, notably, the legendary actor, voice actor, and musician Tim Curry, who passed away last month at the age of 80.
Initially rising to fame for his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show stage show, Curry would go on to have a tremendous career, both on stage and screen, famously appearing in the 1975 film adaptation of the musical, before landing memorable roles in a range of productions such as Legend (1985), Clue (1985), It (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), The Three Musketeers (1993), and Muppet Treasure Island (1996).
As we covered upon his passing, though, his work wasn't just limited to film, TV, or theatre, with the actor also famously providing performances for several video games throughout his career.
While working on The Three Musketeers, Curry was famously pictured with a Game Boy, suggesting he was something of a gamer himself in his spare time. This was supposedly backed up by an interview he did with PC Format in July 1995, where he stated he was "never without his Game Boy," claiming that he was "furious" when somebody stole it.
The combination of this image of Curry dressed as the film's villain Cardinal Richelieu, with Game Boy in hand, coupled with the quote from the PC Format interview, has been reposted time and time again on social media, regularly appearing on sites like Twitter/X, Reddit, and Facebook. This led to speculation about what the actor was playing. Until recently, however, this specific PC Format issue was hard to come by to verify if this quote was true, with some even suggesting the photo could be manipulated. Because of this, we actually reached out to Curry, prior to his passing, via his longtime agent Marcia Hurwitz, to see if he could remember anything about it.
Honestly, given the trivial nature of our enquiry, we didn't expect to get any response. But later that same day, we were shocked when Hurwitz replied, telling us that she'd put our admittedly rather dumb question to the famous actor. Sadly, though, rather than clearing up the mystery, Hurwitz simply stated Curry "[wasn't] familiar with the shot as Richelieu", and had "never been a gamer."
This is something we expected, having read his memoir, Vagabond (which we highly recommend for any fans of his film or voiceover work). There, he states something similar about his relationship with gaming, when talking about how he was convinced by Hurwitz to do his now-legendary performance in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3:
"It may come as a disappointment to some readers—and to those who care, I apologize for my candor—to learn that I have never been personally interested in video games. I confess—it’s a bit more extreme than that, really. I remain utterly mystified by them. I do not have a frame of reference that enables me to understand how to experience it, or what the appeal is. When [Marcia] first brought up the idea, for a project called Red Alert 3, [she] presented it well, and it sounded like a different, unique leap of sorts. I figured, why the fuck not? Even so, I find it very odd to imagine a bunch of kids playing video games somehow narrated—during exclamatory moments—by my voice."
After the news of Curry's passing, I shared the story of reaching out to Curry via his agent on social media, believing this to be the end of my search for information.
However, in the time since, not only has the PC Format article now been shared online, confirming the quote as true, but it also appears that more evidence has emerged to suggest Curry wasn't lying about his interest in the Game Boy in that 1995 interview.
On Facebook and Instagram, in a tribute to the actor, the Congo actress Misty Rosas (who portrayed Amy the Gorilla in the 1995 film) shared a number of on-set photos, with one featuring the actor rather invested in the Nintendo device.
Alongside this picture, she also confirmed exactly what Curry was playing, stating: "Tim loved playing Tetris! When we were on set shooting a scene together, but not always in the same set up, he would often let me play his game. I still play it on my phone. It holds more meaning these days!"
So, there you have it; that's one incredibly niche mystery solved!