Anne Rice, Author of Interview With the Vampire, Has Died
Celebrated author Anne Rice, who is renowned for her bestselling novel Interview with the Vampire, has sadly passed away at the age of 80.
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Celebrated author Anne Rice, who is renowned for her bestselling novels Interview with the Vampire and its sequels series titled The Vampire Chronicles, has sadly passed away at the age of 80. The news of her demise was shared by her son, Christopher Rice, who has revealed that she died following complications arising from a stroke.
Her son has penned a heartfelt post, grieving the absence of his mother who always provided “unconditional” support to him, and how he is in awe of “her accomplishments and her courage.” He went on to talk more about what she meant to him. “As my mother, her support for me was unconditional — she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt,” he wrote, adding that as a writer, Anne Rice also influenced how he perceived the world, taught him to “defy genre boundaries,” and how to “surrender to my obsessive passions.” You can see his post in full below.
As stated above, the New Orleans-born author was majorly known for her debut novel, Interview with the Vampire, published in 1976. Anne Rice penned the novel shortly after the death of her young daughter Michelle and based the childish character of the vampire Claudia on her. Upon its release, the novel initially garnered mixed to negative reviews but in the years since then, it has gained immense popularity. Her novels have been pegged as classic masterpieces in the vampire genre and credited for impacting its modern evolution.
Since Interview With The Vampire, Anne Rice has written eleven sequels, including the bestselling The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned, which are collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles. Rice has also written many erotic novels under two pseudonyms. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty’s Punishment, and Beauty’s Release were published under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure and Exit to Eden plus Belinda as Anne Rampling. She has also penned the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy, The Witching Hour, Lasher, and Taltos, as well as two historical novels, The Feast of All Saints and Cry to Heaven.
In 1994, Anne Rice aided the cinematic adaptation of Interview With The Vampire and penned its screenplay. The film starred Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as the Louisiana vampire, the antihero Lestat and Louis, who is eternally burdened with his never-ending guilt. It also featured Kirsten Dunst in her breakout role as the ten-year-old vampire, Claudia. Directed by Neil Jordan, the film was a box office hit and thus Warner Bros. instantly greenlit a sequel, Queen of the Damned, adapting the second and third books in The Vampire Chronicles. But it ended up being a box office bomb and a major commercial failure.
At the time, Anne Rice distanced herself from the sequel and publicly stated that the filmmakers have “mutilated” the stories of her novels while adapting them for the big screen. But recently, when AMC decided to adapt The Vampire Chronicles saga into a television series, she joined the project as one of the executive producers. The series is set to star Game of Thrones alum Jacob Anderson as Louis, Sam Reid as Lestat, Bailey Bass as Claudia, while newcomer Kalyne Coleman has joined the cast in an undisclosed recurring role. While the celebrated author is no longer there to oversee the modern adaptation of her work, here is to hoping that her unparalleled vision will continue living through her timeless stories.
