Tim Curry’s Most Deliciously Unhinged Villain Moment Is Going Viral Again After His Death

Tim Curry built a career out of playing characters so theatrically wicked that audiences couldn’t help but love them anyway, and this week fans are revisiting one of his most gleefully unhinged performances in the wake of his passing. Long before streaming made every animated role instantly rewatchable, Curry had already carved out a devoted following among Scooby-Doo fans specifically.

That devotion centers on ‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost,‘ the beloved 1999 direct-to-video film in which Curry voiced Ben Ravencroft, a charming horror novelist who turns out to be a warlock descended from an accused witch named Sarah. The character remains one of the franchise’s most memorable villains, largely because of just how much fun Curry seemed to be having with the role.

That enthusiasm reportedly extended well beyond the film itself. According to fans resurfacing the story following his death, Curry considered the incantation scene where Ben summons Sarah’s ghost to be his single favorite line delivery of his entire career, a claim that has been circulating widely alongside clips of the moment.

It’s the kind of gloriously over-the-top performance that made Curry a defining voice in animated villainy for decades. Watching him lean fully into the character’s descent from friendly author to gleeful warlock captures exactly what made his voice work so distinctive, a blend of charisma and menace that few other performers could pull off convincingly.

Ben Ravencroft wasn’t an isolated example either. Curry returned to the Scooby-Doo franchise years later to voice the Goblin King in 2008’s ‘Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King,’ further cementing his status as one of the series’ most iconic recurring guest villains.

Fans online have been quick to point out that the betrayal of Ben Ravencroft remains burned into the memory of anyone who grew up watching the film, largely because Curry’s performance made the character’s turn feel genuinely surprising and delightfully theatrical rather than predictable. That kind of lasting impact from a direct-to-video animated movie speaks to just how effective his voice acting truly was.

Curry’s animated résumé stretched far beyond Scooby-Doo, encompassing everything from Hexxus in ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’ to Nigel Thornberry in ‘The Wild Thornberrys’ and Chancellor Palpatine in ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ following Ian Abercrombie’s death in 2013. Across all of these roles, Curry brought a signature combination of precision, theatricality, and unmistakable relish for wickedness that made even his most cartoonish villains feel genuinely compelling.

His voice acting career continued well past his 2012 stroke, which left him wheelchair-bound but didn’t stop him from continuing to work behind the microphone for years afterward. That resilience only adds to why fans have been so eager to revisit his catalog of performances this week, searching out clips and moments that showcase exactly why his voice became so recognizable across multiple generations of animated projects.

For a performer whose career spanned everything from ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ to Stephen King’s ‘It,’ it says something meaningful that a relatively small role in a Scooby-Doo movie has become one of the moments fans are choosing to celebrate most in the wake of his death. Curry’s ability to make even his silliest villains feel larger than life is exactly the kind of legacy that keeps drawing new audiences back to his work.

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