Stephen King Compares His Cameos To A Legendary Director

There have been Stephen King movies for almost as long as there have been Stephen King books. King's first novel "Carrie" arrived in 1974, and by 1976, a "Carrie" movie was burning up movie screens. King was still relatively obscure at the time, but as his publishing career continued, he became a household name. He also became a recognizable figure, thanks to public appearances on talk shows, TV commercials, and of course, cameos in movies. King's very first cameo appearance was in George A. Romero's "Knightriders," a movie about a ren faire where people joust on motorcycles instead of horses. In that film, King plays a character named Hoagie Man, who can be seen eating a hoagie in a rather disgusting fashion. 

After that, King had a surprisingly large role in Romero's horror anthology film "Creepshow," which King wrote the screenplay for. There, he plays Jordy Verrill, a hick farmer who finds himself covered in alien grass (it's gross and weird). "Acting is just another job," King is quoted as saying in Jessie Horsting's book "Stephen King at the Movies." "It's not particularly strange. I had done some college plays so I'm not a total stranger to standing up and pretending to be something I'm not."

Sure enough, after the one-two punch of "Knightriders" and "Creepshow," King would go on to make cameo appearances in several film and TV adaptations of his work. He pops up in "Maximum Overdrive" (which he also directed), "Pet Sematary," "Golden Years," "Sleepwalkers," "The Stand," "The Langoliers," "Thinner," "The Shining" miniseries, "Storm of the Century," "Rose Red," "Kingdom Hospital," "Under the Dome," "Mr. Mercedes," and "It: Chapter Two." And those are just the cameos in adaptations of his work. King has also put in appearances on "Frasier," "The Simpsons," and "Sons of Anarchy," just to name a few. So how does a Stephen King cameo happen? 

When it comes to Stephen King's cameos in his own work, he seems to have free reign to pick and choose as he wants. "I generally pick the cameo," King told author Tony Magistrale in the book "Hollywood's Stephen King. "I picked, for example, the pizza guy in 'Rose Red,' the weatherman in 'Storm of the Century.' I gave myself a bigger role in 'The Stand.' It's fun." Magistrale specifically asks if the idea of the King cameo is something King picked up from legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, and King replied in the affirmative. "I'm playing Hitchcock here; I'm just a frustrated actor," the author said.

Hitchcock's cameos became rather famous throughout his long career. The master of suspense has cameos in 40 of his 53 surviving films, a concept that Hitchcock said first arose from necessity. "It all started with the shortage of extras in my first picture. I was in for a few seconds as an editor with my back to the cameras. It wasn't really much, but I played it to the hilt," Hitchcock is quoted as saying in a 1945 issue of The New York Times (via The Hitchcock Zone). He added: "Since then I have been trying to get into every one of my pictures. It isn't that I like the business, but it has an impelling fascination that I can't resist. When I do, the cast, grips, and the camera men and everyone else gather to make it as difficult as possible for me. But I can't stop now!" Hitchcock's cameos became so famous that he began putting them very early in his films to get them out of the way, because he was worried audiences would be distracted from the story if they kept watching to see when he'd pop up. 

As for King, his cameos are always a hoot. When I was growing up as a Stephen King-obsessed kid, I always got a huge thrill whenever the very nerdy author would show up for a moment or two. I suppose you could argue that King's cameos can be distracting — he tends to stick out like a sore thumb. But they never bothered me. In fact, I wish he made more of them. There are no shortage of King adaptations on the horizon, so here's hoping we get at least one more cameo from the author.