Tim Curry Auditioned for The Beast

We lost Tim Curry today, and in tribute, a YouTube channel has posted a clip of his audition to voice The Beast in the original 1991 animated feature, Beauty and the Beast.

“Disney Ashman Demos: An Ashman & Menken Archive” is a trove of rare audio recordings, seemingly from someone “on the inside.” It’s an interesting voice that he offered, with a bit of an accent.

Curry later would play Maestro Forte in 1997’s Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

Other Disney-distributed productions include Oscar (1991), Passed Away (1992), The Three Musketeers (1993), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), The Cat Returns (2002), and Valiant (2005). His television credits for the mouse range from Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck, to Lord Dragaunus in Mighty Ducks, to Palpatine in the sixth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

It’s said that he also auditioned for the role of Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, loosing the role because he was “too terrifying.” Other online claims, though note that DisKingdom has not had opportunity to independently verify their veracity, include Jafar, Scar, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire‘s King Nedakh.