Stephen King's First On-Screen Appearance Wasn't For His Own Work
The late, great George A. Romero is a legend. Romero started his career making short industrial films, but it was his 1968 breakthrough "Night of the Living Dead" that would ensure his legacy. Romeo continued to work steadily until his death in 2017, a true outsider always trying to maintain his own singular vision, bucking against the studio system. While Romero primarily worked in horror, he also stepped outside of the genre with 1981's "Knightriders." This underseen feature is about a traveling renaissance fair troupe who perform jousts while riding motorcycles instead of horses. It's kind of wild.
"Knightriders" stars Ed Harris as the king of the trope, and Harris had fond memories of the flick. "It was a very special time," the actor told Indiewire. "George was a beautiful, proud, creative, big bear of a guy. He was gregarious, he loved to drink and smoke. We had a helluva good time."
In addition to Harris, "Knightriders" also features Ken Foree, who appeared in Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," legendary makeup man and sometimes actor Tom Savini, and also a guy making his big screen debut as a character named "Hoagie Man." Hoagie Man's actor?
None other than Stephen King.
Stephen King's big screen debut
As mentioned above, "Knightriders" actually marks Stephen King's big screen debut. King would go on to have cameos in many film adaptations of his book. He would also team up with Romero for the now-classic horror anthology film "Creepshow," which not only had a script by King, but also featured King in a major role, that of poor, doomed farmer Jordy Verrill in the segment "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill."
But "Knightriders" marked the first King/Romero screen collaboration. It's worth noting that King doesn't have a very big role in "Knightriders." His aptly-named "Hoagie Man" sits in the audience during a motorcycle jousting scene and chomps on a hoagie in a rather gluttonous fashion, a can of Budweiser nearby. Wearing a paisley shirt what appears to be a baseball cap turned inside out, King has a few brief lines, and as he talks, pieces of hoagie fall out of his mouth. Honestly, it's kind of disgusting. Also worth noting: the woman sitting next to King is actually King's wife, Tabitha King. She's credited as "Hoagie Man's Wife."
You can see King's cameo in the "Knightriders" clip below.