The Stephen King Cameo The Author Considers His 'Finest Moment' Is Not In A Stephen King Movie

As a Stephen King fan, I always enjoy seeing the bestselling author pop up in cameo appearances. Over the years, King has made plenty of cameos, and even done some full-blown acting, like when he played doomed farmer Jordy Verrill in "Creepshow." For the most part, King tends to cameo in projects adapted directly from his work. But every now and then, the master of horror will put in an appearance in someone else's material. He did a guest voice spot (as himself) on "The Simpsons," he shows up in the rom-com "Fever Pitch," and he was even on "Frasier" once. If you ask King, his best acting work isn't in a Stephen King project at all. No, according to the author, his "finest moment" was when he showed up on the hit TV series "Sons of Anarchy." 

"My finest moment was doing a cameo in 'Sons of Anarchy,' and I got to ride a motorcycle," he told Netflix. King appears in the season 3 episode "Caregiver," playing a character named "Bachman." Fans of the author will immediately recognize that name: King used the pseudonym Richard Bachman for several of his books, and his experience writing under the name inspired his novel "The Dark Half."

On "Sons of Anarchy," King's character Bachman is a "cleaner" — someone who can help dispose of a body. After a character is killed during a scuffle, Bachman is summoned. King arrives on the show by riding a bright-red motorcycle out of the shadows, pulling off his helmet to reveal his long, flowing hair. Dressed in all black, King's Bachman goes right to work, first measuring and manhandling the corpse, and then asking about the quality of the drain in a nearby "slop sink." He then asks for some '80s music while he works. We don't get to see Bachman do his dirty work, but he eventually emerges from a basement looking nonplussed. He's paid for his services and then exits the show forever.

I don't think anyone would ever accuse King of being a great actor, but he brings the right amount of weirdness to his performance here. We can completely buy him as a strange guy who gets rid of dead bodies for a living. Regarding his appearance on the show, King said: "I like to act — not that I'm much good at it, but I suspect most writers do — and a number of factors came together." The author, who tends to stick mostly to Maine or Florida these days, was in California, where "Sons of Anarchy" filmed, to accept an award. That proved to be the perfect opportunity to get him on the show. As King explains: "[Series creator] Kurt Sutter assured me that he'd write me a suitably nasty part (in various films I've been stuck playing a series of mentally challenged country bumpkins); most important of all, he said he'd put me on a b*tchin Harley. How could I say no?"

King added that he loved the motorcycle he got to ride — "The bike was just short of awesome: a bright red Harley-Davidson Road-Glide" — and would've liked to have taken it home with him. Unfortunately, they didn't give him that option, and King went back home sans Harley.