Anne Rice, Bestselling Author of ‘Chronicles of Vampires’, Dies at 80

Anne Rice, the popular and influential author of gothic fiction, died Saturday night, according to social media posts authored by her son. Christopher Rice. Her death was from complications of a stroke, he wrote, noting that he and Anne’s sister Karen was with her at the time. She has passed almost 19 years since following her husband, poet and painter Stan Rice. She was 80 years old.

Rice, who chose the name Anne on her first day of school because she didn’t like her given name, Howard, will be remembered for her Vampire Chronicles series, an anthology of 13 novels beginning with her debut, the events of 1976 Interview with a Vampire. In it, a Louisiana planter tells the story of his transformation into a vampire, thanks to the series’ charismatic anti-hero Lestat.

Rice’s book, sold over 150 million copies worldwide, creating new ground in vampire mythology, with Rice eliminating old demons and creating new ones. In addition, her depictions of undead characters, romantic, artistic, and living on the periphery of society, have long held special significance for weird literature fans, an aspect of her work that Rice has quite aware.

Interview, first written in 1973, is an expansion of one of her earlier short stories and project was born Rice grieve over the death of her five-year-old daughter from leukemia. In 1994, the novel was adapted into a film directed by Neil Jordan, main character Tom Cruise as Lestat and co-star Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, and Stephen Rea.

The film was a critical and box office success, though not without its challenges. Pitt said he was miserable during the production, quote “Six months in goddamn darkness.” Oprah Winfrey, who is planning an interview with Cruise (no, not the couch jumper), go out of the film, calling it too gory. She didn’t want to be “a contributor to the forces of darkness,” she noted at the time. Initial opposition even came from Rice herself, the trusted screenwriter, who criticized the casting of Cruise and Pitt. She went so far as to take out a 8 page advertisement in Diversity voiced her displeasure.

Rice said the Top Guns star “no more Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler.” But the producer David Geffen stuck with the actors and push back against her loss. When the author finally watched the movie, she reverse her opinion, even calling Cruise to say she was wrong.

Again Vampire Chronicles Novel, Queen of the Damned, which was made into a film in 2002, with Aaliyah as Akasha, the first vampire on earth, and Stuart Townsend as Lestat. In 2006, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote the music and lyrics for a short musical, Lestat, based on character.

In addition to Rice’s main series, she has written several independent novels, a trilogy called The Lives of the Mayfair Witches (including some intersection points with The Vampire Chronicles), and novels set in ancient Egypt. She also has two noms de plume for erotic fiction. Under the name “AN Roquelaure,” she has written four books about Sleeping Beauties story (in there the central character is awakened by more than one kiss, and “horse gear” is at some point involved). As “Anne Rampling”, she wrote the book Eden’s Exit and Belinda. Formerly a BDSM romance that was dramatically altered and adapted into an extensive comedy directed by Garry Marshall, starring Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O’Donnell. (Unfortunately, it was a notorious failure.)