Every Stephen King Acting Role In One Of His Movie & TV Adaptations, Ranked

The horror legend Stephen King has occasionally made cameo appearances, or had even small roles, in some of the many adaptations of his work on screen and television. Sometimes serious, often sinister, and occasionally silly, it’s always a treat to witness King pop up as a character in an adaptation of one of his stories. As one of the most adapted authors of all time, King has not appeared in every movie or television version of his work, but whenever he did, he always made it count and provided a laugh or a scare.

King’s appearances in adaptations of his work were to horror what Stan Lee’s cameos were to Marvel Comics. They’re fun Easter eggs that make the viewing experience of one of his works even better. While some of King’s appearances were brief and only amounted to a couple of seconds onscreen, others were proper roles, and in just one rare instance, he even played the protagonist of a segment. While the various King acting roles in his movie and TV adaptations could vary in quality, they were never boring and always felt like a hidden treat for his loyal readers.

17

The Stand (2020 – 2021)

Stephen King as Man on Hemingford Poster

On the lowest end of the spectrum when it came to Stephen King’s roles in his own adaptations was his brief appearance in the 2020 miniseries The Stand. While the post-apocalyptic fantasy The Stand stood as one of King’s most acclaimed works, its story about a world overtaken by a deadly pandemic was oddly relevant in 2020, likely due to the real-life pandemic going on, King’s role in it was a severely limited one. King’s appearance in The Stand was limited to just a photo as he briefly appeared as the Man on the Hemingford Home Poster in a background shot.

16

Rose Red (2002)

Stephen King as Pizza Delivery Guy

Some of the best Stephen King cameos in his work were blink-and-miss-it moments, just enough time for audiences to notice him, but not enough to distract from the overall narrative. This was exactly the case in King’s cameo as a pizza delivery guy in the Rose Red miniseries. After Dr. Joyce Reardon opened the door to find a mysterious figure hidden by shadows King walked into the scene to deliver three large, loaded pizzas and two six-packs of soda. A fun moment for King enthusiasts, the writer popped up for only a few seconds in this haunted house story.

15

Thinner (1996)

Stephen King as Pharmacist

One common factor that linked many Stephen King cameos in his own work was that his appearance acted as a prelude to when the real horror of the story was about to begin, and his role as a slightly creepy pharmacist in Thinner was no different. King’s brief part involved providing medicine to Billy Halleck shortly before he ran over and killed a traveling Romani woman. While King didn’t have a lot of dialogue, he left his mark, and astute viewers were sure to recognize him as the original novel’s author, which he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

14

Golden Years (1991)

Stephen King as Bus Driver

In the fifth episode of the sci-fi thriller miniseries Golden Years, Stephen King popped up for a short appearance as a curmudgeonly bus driver taking Terry Spann and her mother to safety. In a comedic cameo, King complained about the “side of the roaders” who made his job more difficult, while Spann, played by Felicity Huffman, told him to put his “mouth in neutral” and drive the bus. Golden Years was a television series created by King about a janitor on the run after getting caught up in a top-secret operation that caused him to age in reverse.

13

Under The Dome (2013 – 2015)

Stephen King as Diner Patron

Stephen King’s appearance in the sci-fi TV series Under the Dome was so brief that only there were likely plenty of viewers who never even realized he was in it at all. King popped up for only a few seconds in the second season premiere “Heads Will Roll” as a diner patron who asked Angie McAlister for a refill of his cup of coffee. While tiny cameos like this may seem insignificant, every time King briefly showed up in a project like this it was a reminder that he was the brain behind so many iconic and beloved books, movies, and series.

12

The Shining (1997)

Stephen King as Gage Creed

While Stephen King was not a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining, he wrote the screenplay for the 1997 three-part miniseries adaptation of his novel. Not only this but King appeared in the TV version of The Shining as Gage Creed, the leader of the Gage Creed Orchestra in the Overlook Hotel, in a fun and energic cameo that also paid tribute to King’s novel Pet Sematary. While The Shining miniseries was not nearly as acclaimed as Kubrick’s version, it did correct King’s dissatisfaction with the perception that Jack Torrence was insane before he arrived at the hotel.

11

Kingdom Hospital (2004)

Stephen King as Johnny B. Goode

Stephen King made a memorable appearance as an elusive hospital security staff member Johnny B. Goode in his series Kingdom Hospital, which he developed based on Lars von Trier’s Danish horror series The Kingdom. Interestingly King’s appearance in Kingdom Hospital created a strange paradox as there was a scene where a baseball commentary stated the game was playing out like “a Stephen King horror story.” This meant within the world of Kingdom Hospital, the author had an exact doppelgänger caught up in a story eerie similar to the kind that he wrote.

10

Creepshow 2 (1987)

Stephen King as Truck Driver

Having already had a major role in the first Creepshow movie, Stephen King followed this up with a cameo as a truck driver in “The Hitchhiker” segment of Creepshow 2. In King’s brief appearance, his quirky character came across a bloody hit-and-run and was oddly indifferent to the horror stating, “It happens all the time.” While King has had more interesting cameos, it was exciting to see him turn up for the sequel of his most prominent onscreen role in the original Creepshow, and was just one of two instances where he appeared in multiple entries of the same series.

9

Storm Of The Century (1999)

Stephen King as Lawyer in Ad

Storm of the Century was a TV miniseries written by Stephen King, where he had a short cameo as a sleazy lawyer in a TV commercial shown in the background at Martha Clarendon’s house. It was one of King’s funnier cameos as he also popped up as a reporter on TV, however, it’s never explained whether this was supposed to be the same guy with two jobs or two different characters. In his appearance, King added some levity to the story in Storm of the Century of a mysterious man terrorizing a town following a dangerous blizzard.

8

Sleepwalkers (1992)

Stephen King as Cemetery Caretaker

Stephen King had a hilarious role as the cemetery caretaker in the 1992 movie Sleepwalkers, which he wrote the screenplay for. After arriving on the scene of discovered dead body in the graveyard, King’s character was determined that he didn’t “take the wrap for this” and tells the police it’s not his fault if “every horny kid, weirdo, pervert comes in here” with the running joke being he repeats the same excuse to the forensic investigator, officer, and the sheriff and was moved along each time. It was a funny King appearance that was more memorable than a short cameo.

7

The Langoliers (1995)

Stephen King as Tom Holby

One of Stephen King’s wackier onscreen appearances came in the miniseries The Langoliers, which was based on a novella from his anthology book Four Past Midnight. Here King played Tom Holby, the imaginary chairman of the board in Craig Toomy’s final hallucination while losing a grip on reality. In this sequence, a greedy version of King listened in as Toomy revealed he deliberately lost $43,000,000 by investing in stocks he knew to be worthless. An interesting cameo, from a lesser-known King series, it’s well worth checking out.

6

Mr. Mercedes (2017 – 2019)

Stephen King as Diner Patron

Although it’s one of the horror writer’s briefest onscreen appearances, Stephen King’s role in Mr. Mercedes was his most gory as he appeared as a corpse with a knife plunged into his chest. The crime series, which was based on King’s Bill Hodges novel trilogy included this shocking appearance by King, where he had suffered the same deathly fate as so many of his characters. Much different from other King roles in his adaptation, viewers can take comfort in the knowledge that his character’s death was part of a dream sequence and not canon within the world of the show.

5

The Stand (1994)

Stephen King as Teddy Weizak

Stephen King was given a real opportunity to show off his acting chops as the secondary character Teddy Weizak, an apocalypse survivor in the first adaptation of his 1978 novel The Stand. King wrote the screenplay for the entire four-part miniseries and imbued Teddy with a real sense of humanity and vulnerability as he drove Nadine Cross through the deserted landscape and struggled to tell Stu Redman about the heartbreaking sickness of his baby. While King’s role as Teddy was memorable, the 2020 adaptation of The Stand improved upon the minor character through his friendship with Harold Lauder.

4

It Chapter Two (2019)

Stephen King as Shopkeeper

Stephen King had a great cameo in It Chapter Two as the shopkeeper who sold Bill Denborough’s childhood bike back to him. A truly hilarious tongue-in-cheek reference to King’s own career as a writer, he falsely inflated the price of the bicycle because he knew that Bill was a successful writer, and he could afford it. The connection between King’s career as a writer was made even funnier when it was revealed the shopkeeper had read Bill’s latest novel and when asked if he wanted it signed refused and said he “didn’t like the ending.”

A deeply layered cameo appearance, King as the shopkeeper poked light fun at the common perception that the horror writer can sometimes falter on the endings of his own works. However, King’s role in It Chapter Two could have been even more interesting as the original script included a flashback scene to the pawnshop where a younger version of the shopkeeper would have appeared. Reportedly, the younger version of King was to be played by his son Joe Hill (via Variety), which would have worked well as the two bear a striking resemblance to one another.

3

Pet Sematary (1989)

Stephen King as Minster

Although it was only a very small role, the image of Stephen King as a minister in Pet Sematary was truly a sight to behold. The juxtaposition between the horror hellscapes created by the twisted genius of King, and the Godly words of his priestly character was almost too much to bear. With a bible in hand and draped in black robes, it’s interesting to hear King exposing the power of religion to lift people up and give them peace, especially when he’s been so notorious for creating countless sleepless nights for his millions of devoted readers.

In a very quick appearance that lasted less than 30 seconds, King played the minister who blessed Missy’s funeral after her tragic suicide in Pet Sematary. As one of King’s earliest cameos, the writer had yet to carve out his onscreen persona as an often sinister or comedic character. King’s role as the minister in Pet Sematary stood as particularly memorable because it was just so different from all of his other appearances.

2

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Stephen King as Man at ATM

For Stephen King’s first and only time in the director’s chair, he gave himself his funniest acting role as the Man at the ATM in Maximum Overdrive, a horror film he based on his short story “Trucks.” While Maximum Overdrive was widely considered a failure, to the point that King never again directed a movie, the writer’s brief cameo at the ATM that told him he was an “a**hole” was laugh-out-loud hilarious that was made even funnier through expert delivery.

As King’s character called his wife for assistance while screaming “this machine just called me an a**hole” he delivered the funniest line Maximum Overdrive in response to the machines that had just achieved sentience. While much of the black humor and campy tone of Maximum Consumption missed the mark, as one of King’s earliest cameos it showcased his talent as a comedic actor. This ability to milk every scene he’s in for maximum humor was a tenet of many of King’s later cameos and laid the foundations for countless future film appearances.

1

Creepshow (1982)

Stephen King as Jordy Verrill

The very best Stephen King acting role across all his appearances in his own adaptations has to be his most significant, and that was as the lead character in the Creepshow segment “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.” Under the direction of horror legend George A. Romero, King gave a committed comedic performance as the backward yokel Jordy Verrill who saw dollar signs in a meteor that he discovered crash-landed from outer space. As the title suggested, after several bizarre developments, Jordy’s life came to an untimely supernatural end at the hands of alien vegetation.

As King’s very first appearance in an adaptation of his stories, King’s part in Creepshow was his largest role ever and showcased his skill as a comedic actor of exceptional talent. In another world, King could have continued acting in roles like this and, instead of limiting himself to occasional cameo appearances, pursued a dual career as a writer and actor who, due to the countless adaptations of King’s writings, would never be short of work. Alas, Stephen King readers will have to make do with the scattered cameos and small roles he decided to take up over the years.

Source: Variety