John Curry was one of the first openly gay sportsmen in the world
A documentary on John’s life and career, The Ice King, was released in 2018(Image: Mirrorpix)
The life of one of Britain’s finest skaters changed in the city centre when he shared a burden with a friend. John Curry, originally from Birmingham, was a world-renowned competitor on the ice.
However, temporarily, he hung up his boots to play the role of Buttons in a production of Cinderella at Liverpool Playhouse. It was during this time he told his good friend, Heinz Wirz, on the steps of the Adelphi Hotel about a health condition he had been secretly living with.
From a young age, John had a clear desire to dance, dreaming of being Billy Elliot long before the film and theatre hit was even conceived. However, his domineering dad, Joseph, crushed this dream, refusing to let him study ballet.
Undeterred, John turned to ice skating, a pursuit his dad, a precision engineer, approved of because it was classified as a sport. This same sport would later see John win European, Olympic and World titles, and be crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1976. It would also help him earn the title of the country’s ‘golden boy of skating’.
Despite growing up in a large suburban house with ostentatious cars in the driveway, thanks to their family’s success in Birmingham’s gun quarter, all was not as it seemed for John and his two elder brothers.
John was a man whose driven nature allowed him to scale unprecedented heights on the ice. Still, he remained haunted by his dad’s coldness, according to Bill Jones’ biography, The Triumph and Tragedy of John Curry.
Skating superstar John Curry in Birmingham where he learnt his skills(Image: Mirrorpix)
On a chilly winter’s night in 1977, 20 million people tuned into their TV’s to watch what should have been one of the best moments of John’s life but was instead overshadowed by his sexuality.
Despite living in a restrictive society, John revealed he was gay, and within hours of winning gold, the news was wired around the world. The scandal quickly subsided, and John’s sexual orientation was generally overlooked by the press and public.
Around the same time, at the age of 27, John started using the services of a celebrity agent who was rubbing shoulders with Bette Davis and Leonard Bernstein. With the agent’s help John kickstarted his rollercoaster of a show business career, and it wasn’t long before he made his Broadway debut, where celebrities in the audience included the music icon Diana Ross.
British Ice Skater John Curry celebrates on the podium after his gold medal win in February 1976. (Image: Mirrorpix)
After 23 nights of standing ovations, John’s show folded with reports of him “drinking liquid protein to combat weight loss and getting only four hours’ sleep a night amidst persistent rumours about cocaine”. It wasn’t the last time that John’s show would have problems with his skating company finding itself more than £1 million in debt as a result.
John’s ice skates were back in action for a spell when he enthusiastically agreed to star in a local production of Cinderella, complete with four songs and some fancy footwork. It was during this period that John confided in his Swiss friend, Heinz Wirz, about being HIV positive, sharing the news right on the steps of Liverpool’s famous Adelphi hotel.
Olympic skating champion John Curry is honoured at a civic reception in Birmingham Council House(Image: Mirrorpix)
The details surrounding when or where John was diagnosed remain shrouded in mystery, but it is thought he was given the news around 1987. As murmurs about John’s health began to circulate more widely, he sat down for an interview which snowballed into a two-page exposé titled: “All my friends died of AIDS. Now it’s my turn.”
John Curry passed away aged 44 in 1994, a few years after the death of the legendary Freddie Mercury from the same illness. John spent his final days alongside his mum, Rita, and true to his final wishes, he had a humanist service to say farewell.