Tim Curry Ready for a 'Family Affair'

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/13/2002 at 01:00 PM EDT

Goodbye bustier, hello butler's uniform. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" star Tim Curry, 56, who played cross-dressing mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter in that 1975 cult movie favorite, is now set to step into the shoes of late bearded actor Sebastian Cabot to play Mr French in the new series remake of TV's "Family Affair." The '66-'71 CBS sitcom that starred Brian Keith as a bachelor who inherits his late sister's kids and is assisted in their upbringing by his valet, Mr. French, is being modernized, Curry tells the Associated Press. The new show will premiere this fall on the WB. (The WB, like PEOPLE, is part of AOL Time Warner.) Curry says he hopes he doesn't offend fans of the previous Mr. French, but he plans to play the character in his own way. "I guess because of my iconic history I may be less inhibited and less worried about taking it on as an icon because, you know, I know what they are worth. It is in the eye of the beholder," he told AP Radio.