Tim Curry, the British actor whose career spanned The Rocky Horror Picture Show, It, Clue and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died at 80. Among his many roles, it was the part of Mr. Hector, the suspicious concierge in Home Alone 2, that gave Curry an unusual connection to Donald Trump, who owned New York's Plaza Hotel at the time and made a brief cameo in the movie.
More than three decades later, Curry offered a revealing—and occasionally sardonic—account of his encounters with Trump during filming. In a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Curry recalled Trump in 1992 as a man possessing what he described as “the most explosive confidence that I’d ever encountered.” Curry remembered him as being entirely sure of himself and eager to make an impression on the filmmakers. One of Curry's stories involved Trump's then-girlfriend, Marla Maples.
According to Curry, Trump was keen to find director Chris Columbus and introduce him to Maples, whom Trump described as a “brilliant actress.” Curry's response was characteristically dry. Curry also recalled an encounter with Ivana Trump, Trump's then-wife and the Plaza's president and manager. Ivana reportedly came to Curry's room and asked whether he liked the décor at the hotel.
Curry told her that he did. Privately, he had a very different opinion. The Trump cameo itself has since become one of the more enduring curiosities surrounding Home Alone 2.
Columbus said in 2020 that Trump had effectively made his appearance a condition of allowing the production to film inside the Plaza, recalling Trump telling the filmmakers: “The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.” Trump has disputed that account. In 2023, he said the filmmakers had actually been persistent in asking him to appear and that he had initially been too busy to do it. He argued that the cameo became a success and that the film's producers had wanted him in it.
Curry's career was built on characters who could be theatrical, outrageous, sinister and funny all at once. Frank-N-Furter made him a cultural icon; Pennywise made him a horror legend; Wadsworth in Clue showcased his comic timing. His appearance in Home Alone 2 was a much smaller part, but it placed him in the middle of one of the strangest pieces of Hollywood history involving Trump.
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