Stephen King and 7 other famous writers who starred in the film adaptations of their books: Who and why they played

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Cameo is a role played by someone recognizable, known to the public; he usually "plays" himself. Sometimes in an episode there will be a glimpse of someone without whom the film would not have been, since the book that formed its basis would not have existed. Whatever motives the writer may be guided by when entering the set of a film based on his work, this experience becomes curious for viewers and readers, because it makes it possible to see firsthand the one who previously hid behind the lines of book bestsellers.

1. Gianni Rodari

Italian storyteller Gianni Rodari played the narrator in the film adaptation of his most famous work, Cipollino. The 1973 Soviet film directed by Tamara Lisitsian opened with a prologue in which the viewer met a storyteller in a gray suit. This was Rodari. Together with the writer, his daughter Paola starred in Cipollino.

2. Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is an American writer who is considered one of the most significant of those who worked in the 20th century. He had to endure the Great Depression, and the suicide of his mother, and World War II, and captivity. Vonnegut took part in the filming of films based on his books several times. In the comedy "Back to School" Vonnegut plays himself, he is hired by the hero to write an essay on the theme of creativity … Kurt Vonnegut. The work subsequently turns out to be criticized by the teacher, who found it completely inconsistent with the writer's work.

Vonnegut's cameo can also be seen in the film Mother Darkness, where he is a sad old passer-by, and also in the film Breakfast for Champions, where the writer plays the director of a commercial.

3. John le Carré

John le Carré, whose real name is David John Moore Cornwell, is known as the author of spy novels, and the writer does not recognize Bond at all, considering the adventures of 007 to be "fake." Le Carré has the right to his own judgment: at one time he served in the British MI6 service, from where he got the material for his books.

In the film adaptation of the novel "Spy, Get Out", published under the same name, the writer plays the role of a guest at a Christmas party in the same Mi-6. The ex-agent liked the shooting and the film itself, especially since the cast included Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and many other stars, including Russian ones - Svetlana Khodchenkova and Konstantin Khabensky.

4. Peter Benchley

Peter Benchley wrote Jaws in 1974 and stayed on the bestseller list for nearly a year. Shortly after the book, there was a film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film version was significantly different from the original story, the emphasis shifted from solving the mystery to the shark itself, the filmmakers made full use of editing and props: a fake mechanical shark was specially made for filming.

In the thriller "Jaws" Benchley got the small role of a reporter with a microphone. But over time, he himself began to regret the terrible fame that white sharks received thanks to his brainchild: these creatures, extremely rarely attacking humans, became the object of real persecution, and the writer felt responsible for this.

5. Jacqueline Susan

The role of a reporter, voicing part of a film plot, is generally quite typical for writers - which, perhaps, is easily explained - after all, this is so close to their main occupation. So Jacqueline Susan, the author of the famous "Valley of the Dolls" about three girls and their path to fame, appeared on the screen as a representative of this profession. In the film of the same name, she acts as a journalist covering the suicide of one of the main characters. "Valley of the Dolls" appeared in film distribution in 1967 - the next year after the book's release.

6. Frederic Beigbeder

The writer Frederic Beigbeder managed to be in different guises in his life - he was a critic, a copywriter, a TV show host, and an editor - and all of them were associated with books, like Beigbeder's cameo role, in the film 99 Francs, filmed based on the novel of the same name - the 2000 sales leader in France. Frederick appeared in three images at once: a party-goer at a disco, a stewardess and a reflection of a hero in a mirror.

7. Stephenie Meyer

Quite a small, but still the role was played in the movie "Twilight" by the writer who created the vampire saga - Stephenie Meyer. For five seconds, the camera caught a visitor to the cafe, where the heroine, Bella, and her father meet. And later, in the wedding scene from Twilight. Saga: Breaking Dawn Mayer can be recognized as a guest, a woman in a pink dress.

8. Stephen King

But the record for the number of screen appearances among all writers is firmly held by the king of horrors, Stephen King. His first role was played in the 1982 film Kaleidoscope of Horrors. By the way, the writer's son, Joe King, who later chose a literary career himself, also starred there. King got a taste of it - and since then has regularly delighted readers with appearances in episodes - small but bright. In "Pet Sematary" he played a priest, in "Langoliers" - the boss Craig Toomey. More recently - the role of a shop assistant in the movie "It-2".

This list of writers who made it to the screens of movies is, of course, far from complete. Chuck Palahniuk, creator of Fight Club, and Danny Wallace, author of Always Say Yes, and Sergei Lukyanenko, who starred in Day Watch, and William Peter Blatty, who wrote The Banishing the devil."

Was all these masters of the pen driven by the desire for even greater fame, the desire, together with the director, to give life to a new work of cinema, or maybe the desire to control the story, which now lives its own life and is no longer subordinate to the writer?

Alfred Hitchcock, the author of at least one of some of the scariest scenes in film history.