Top Ten Stephen King Cameos!

TOP TEN STEPHEN KING CAMEOS

Stephen King is obviously a huge part of our culture and has been for decades. He's also my hero and just an all around great guy. His 70th birthday is coming up so I've rounded up some of his best cameos so you can keep an eye out when you re-watch! 

In no particular order:

#10 - Band Leader in The Shining miniseries

There was a Shining miniseries I hear you asking? Yes my spooky friends, there was a miniseries. Mick Garris directed this three part series for ABC in 1997 who would only adapt it if King promised to not bad mouth the film version. Both Sam Raimi and Frank Darabont cameo in it too! But King shows up as the creepy mustache wearing band leader named Gage Creed and it's pretty great.

#9 - Hoagie Man in Knightriders

I think this is his first on screen cameo and it's Romero's 1981 film Knightrider. Romero and King have a really cute friendship and it all started here. He plays a heckler at a medieval parade, uttering the phrase "you know, I don't have the balls to wear a thing like that!".

 

#8 - The Cleaner in Sons of Anarchy

King was a huge fan of SOA and was thrilled when he got to cameo as Dick Bachman aka The Cleaner in a 2010 episode. He gets to ride a motorcycle, wear a cool leather jacket and show he's always going to be a total bad ass. In the show he's the go-to man for cleaning up the messes and listens to 80's music while doing so.

#7 - Jordy Verrill in Creepshow

One of my favorite Creepshow stories, King reunited with Romero to play the title character in the anthology Creepshow. King shows some serious acting talent here playing a redneck who gets consumed by alien vegetation.

#6 - Truck Driver in Creepshow 2

King was invited back for the sequel and in this round he plays a hillbilly trucker with a couple of lines. Romero wrote the screenplay for the second film and Michael Gornick directed it.

#5 - Asshole at the ATM in Maximum Overdrive

One of the craziest films I've EVER seen is Maximum Overdrive, a cocaine fulled nightmare. King's directorial debut and his only ever attempt at it, he also claims this is the worst adaptation of all his books. But that was before Cell was made....I JOKE, I JOKE! This is one of my favorite cameos.

#4 - Cemetery Groundskeeper in Sleepwalkers

Written by Stephen King and directed by Mick Garris, this cameo is epic because it includes Tobe Hooper and Clive Barker. THE HOLY TRINITY. Sort of.

#3 - Minister in Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary is one of my favorite King books and one of my favorite adaptations. It came out in 1989 and is directed by Mary Lambert. Never forget how TERRIFYING Zelda is....
King plays the Minister overseeing the funeral of Gage Creed and there's something really spooky about that performance.

#2 - Teddy Weizak in The Stand

Probably one of King's adaptations that most people talk about fondly and absolutely a fan favorite book. The Stand was a TV mini-series that played in 1994 and King gets to play a 2 episode arc as Weizak. He really shows off his acting chops in this one and has to do a very emotional scene.

#1 - Himself in The Simpsons

That's right, King got to play a Simpson's version of himself in the episode "Insane Clown Poppy". Drew Barrymore also appears in the episode as the character Sophie. Barrymore was in two King adaptations - Firestarter and Cat's Eye. It originally aired in 2000 on November 12th. Marge encounters King at a book fair where he tells her that he didn't feel like writing horror anymore so was writing a biography on Benjamin Franklin. It's a really funny moment!

So there you have it! My ten favorite King cameos!

Stay spooky everyone and keep updated with my latest articles over at the other site I write for addictedtohorrormovies.