Mahuset issues condolences on the deaths of Tim Curry and Dolly Parton

Lazia, 28 August 2026 — Chad Lord-Stadtholder Emiel van der Huijsen has issued condolences on behalf of the Confederation of Mahuset on the deaths of Tim Curry and Dolly Parton, both aged 80. Curry, the English actor, died on 26 August 2026; Parton, the American country singer, died in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday 25 August 2026 after a brief illness with cancer.

“Tim Curry and Dolly Parton gave long working lives to audiences far beyond their own countries”, Chad Lord-Stadtholder Van der Huijsen said. “Their deaths, a day apart, will be felt by many who never met them. My sympathies are with their families, their friends and those who worked with them.”

Born in Warrington in 1946, Curry took his first job after university in the original London production of Hair in 1968. He created Dr Frank-N-Furter at the Royal Court upstairs theatre in 1973, after a fellow cast member, Richard O'Brien, asked him to audition. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) was not an immediate hit but became a cult favourite and holds the record for the longest-running theatrical release in film history. He played Pennywise in the 1990 television It, Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island in 1996 and had three Tony nominations.

In 2008 Curry played the Soviet premier Anatoly Cherdenko in the live-action cutscenes of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. Cherdenko and General Nikolai Krukov use a time machine beneath the Kremlin to travel to Brussels in 1927 and eliminate Albert Einstein. The performance is remembered for its deliberate excess, and the closing monologue of the Soviet campaign is its most celebrated moment. He also appeared in Dragon Age: Origins.

Parton, the Queen of Country, was a singer, actress and philanthropist whose songs included Jolene. Her diagnosis was not made public, though she had spoken of health problems since 2025. Her death was announced by her nephew Bryan Seaver, her head of security for more than two decades, in a video message she had asked him years earlier to deliver. “It is an honor, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness”, Seaver said.

Luke Evans called Curry “a force, a bright fierce flame, an exquisite charm”. Parton's sister Stella wrote on 27 August 2026: “My big sister Dolly got her wings this past Tuesday.” President Donald Trump called her death a “true loss for millions of people” and ordered American flags lowered for one week. Buckingham Palace paid tribute; Harry Styles and John Mayer honoured her in music.