Product Code Database
John Anthony Curry, (9 September 1949 – 15 April 1994) was a British Figure skating. He was the 1976 European, World and Olympic Champion. He was noted for combining ballet and modern dance influences into his skating.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Great Britain. sports-reference.com and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1976. He was the first male figure skater from Great Britain to win Olympic gold.
As an amateur competitor, Curry was noted for his ballet-like posture and extension, and his superb body control. Along with Canadian skater Toller Cranston, Curry was responsible for bringing the artistic and presentation aspects of men's figure skating to a new level. At the peak of his competitive career, Curry was also accomplished both at compulsory figures and the athletic (jumping) aspects of free skating.
During his 1976 Olympic free skate, using music from the ballet Don Quixote, he successfully landed a triple toe loop, a triple Salchow jump and a triple loop jump. His performance is known to have garnered the highest score ever given during the era of the 6.0 scoring in figure skating. He earned 105.9 points out of a possible 108 points from a panel of 9 international judges. Only the judges from Canada and the Soviet Union did not place him first. The judges' decisions are noteworthy because the silver medallist was Vladimir Kovalev of USSR and the bronze medallist was Toller Cranston of Canada. The programme, with its formal ballet positions and "measured restraint", was also known as one of Curry's most memorable performances. Two years earlier, he used Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, which was called "a new, more eccentric look to his skating".
His skating was unusual in that his jumps were performed counter-clockwise, but most of his spins (except flying spins) were performed clockwise. In his 1978 biography, Curry is clear that if he were to do it over, his choice would have been in favour of ballet due to its highly defined structure which was a basis for his ability to jump and spin in either direction thanks to his command of a true center line understanding.
Curry's skating was characterized by strict attention to detail and clean, classical lines. As figure skater and writer Ellyn Kestnbaum states, he used his training in ballet to portray integrity of movement rooted in both dance and skating techniques. Hines states that "coupled with 20 years of artistic development, his then fine-honed technique provided a balance that created one of the greatest artists in the history of the sport".
Curry's Broadway theatre credits include Icedancing (1978) John Curry – Scheherazade 1980 (Professional Version) . Youtube as a performer and director and the 1980 revival of Brigadoon as an actor and the Roundabout Theatre 1989 revival of Privates on Parade as an actor.
In 1987, Curry was diagnosed with HIV and, in 1991, with AIDS. In October 1992, he gave an interview to a newspaper in which he spoke about both his disease and his sexual orientation. He spent the last years of his life with his mother. He died of an AIDS-related heart attack on 15 April 1994 in Binton, Warwickshire, aged 44. In line with his own wishes, Curry had a Humanists UK funeral. A humanist memorial service took place later that year at Conway Hall Ethical Society, London.
Donald Spoto's authorised biography of actor Alan Bates stated that Curry and Bates had a two-year affair and that Curry died in Bates's arms.
In 2018, a documentary on Curry's life and career, The Ice King, was released by Dogwoof. The Ice King-Dogwoof-Documentary Distribution Retrieved 1 April 2018.
| 1st |
| 1st |
| 1st |
| 1st |
|
|
