Dr. Fred N. Furter

Back in the ’70s, everyone was wondering who could portray Freddie if his life story were to play out on the big screen. And at that time, it seemed that Tim Curry had landed the role that Freddie was born to play—Dr. Frank N. Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Hey, what if Tim played Freddie? That could work since Tim looks like him, has an overbite, and sings pretty good, too. But it wasn’t meant to be, I suppose, although Adam Ant’s name came up a few times in the early ’80s as a possible shoo-in for playing Freddie.

What about now, since there’s a much-hyped Freddie biography in the works? Apart from the speculation of who would front the band, playing Freddie on-screen is a much different challenge. Johnny Depp was being played up in the media as a possible candidate (personally, I can’t see it), as was Sasha Baron Cohen, whose Borat character is supposedly based on Freddie. (Cohen, I believe, could pull it off.)

Although Freddie didn’t make it into the RHPS, Brian did, in a 1995 London production of the show. He guest-starred as “Eddie” (Meat Loaf’s character from the film) and did a superb rendition of Whatever Happend to Saturday Night (Hot Patootie). The soundtrack can be found here. Brian’s wife, Anita Dobson, was one of the main headliners for that run.

One final Queen–RHPS tie-in . . . Richard O’Brien, who plays Riff Raff and is the main creative force behind the entire production, was also in Flash Gordon.