Horror master Stephen King has seen his work be adapted many times for both the big and small screens, and he often opts to make cameos within them. Authors rarely reach the level of fame that King enjoys, as he's transcended simply being a popular writer and become a pop culture icon in and of himself. King has written so many stories that have proven iconic, and while some critics at the time he first rose to prominence bashed his style, King has become more and more revered in literary circles as the decades have gone on.
At 72-years-old, King's writing pace shows little sign of slowing down, as he still publishes novels and short stories on a pretty regular basis. This is all despite the fact that the world almost lost King completely in 1999, when a distracted driver hit the author while he was walking near his home, and nearly killed him. Thankfully, King pulled through, and after a recovery period, was able to get back to what he does best: entertain his constant readers.
Since the smash success of IT in 2017, there's been a strong resurgence in the amount of King stories set to become movies and TV shows. Thus, there's no telling how many more fun cameos fans might get from the author in years to come. For now, here's all the adaptations of his work that he's appeared in to date.
Creepshow
King's first role in an adaptation of his own work is actually his biggest part to date, extending beyond a mere one scene cameo. In the Creepshow story "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill," based on a King short called "Weeds," King stars as the titular character, a not very bright backwoods man who makes the mistake of touching a meteor that had just landed in his backyard. Before long, Jordy is covered in alien plant life, and dies by suicide.
Maximum Overdrive
Since Maximum Overdrive was King's first - and infamously last - time directing a film, an adaptation of his short story "Trucks," it makes perfect sense that he made a cameo in it. King plays a bank customer looking to withdraw money from an ATM, only for the machine to curse at him in hilarious fashion.
Creepshow 2
Creepshow 2 adapts two King short stories, and features a third based on an idea King had that was almost used for the first film. King's cameo comes in that third story, titled "The Hitchhiker," with him appearing as a truck driver who sees the body of the titular character lying in the road, and stops to report his discovery.
Pet Sematary
In 1989's first film adaptation of Pet Sematary, King fittingly appears as the minister presiding over the funeral of little Gage Creed after he's run over by a semi truck. Considering that King essentially "killed" Gage via the writing of his book, the casting is darkly funny.
Golden Years
One of King's more obscure adaptations, Golden Years was a 7-part CBS miniseries that aired in 1991. It was based on a novel idea King had but never ended up writing, although he did write several of the TV episode scripts. King turns up in episode 5 as an ornery bus driver.
Sleepwalkers
Sleepwalkers is an odd duck, in that instead of being based on an existing story or story idea, it was the first time King ever wrote something as a screenplay first. King shows up at a crime scene as an annoyed cemetery caretaker, and as can be seen above, actually cameos alongside fellow horror giant Clive Barker.
The Stand
The Stand is soon to be adapted again for CBS All Access, but in ABC's 1994 miniseries, King appeared as Teddy Weizak, a kindhearted character who s the other good folks aligned with Mother Abigail. Notably, Teddy doesn't die in the miniseries, but did in the book.
The Langoliers
In one of King's wackier cameos, he appears in 1995 miniseries The Langoliers as Tom Holby, an imaginary version of villain Craig Toomy's greedy boss. An incredibly hammy King is placed opposite an incredibly hammy Bronson Pinchot as Toomy, and it's a memorable combination.
Thinner
In 1996's Thinner, an adaptation of one of the novels King wrote under the Richard Bachman pen name, he plays a pharmacist. There's really not much else to say about it, fitting, since Thinner is quite the unremarkable movie, based on one of King's lesser stories.
The Shining
It's safe to say King's 1997 miniseries version of Gage Creed, a nod to Pet Sematary.