Every Time Stephen King Made a Cameo in One of His Adaptations

Not only is Stephen King a prolific writer who has penned some of the most memorable and beloved stories of all time, but he’s also been known to actually show up in adaptations of these stories. But somehow, they never really feel forced. In fact, his cameos are easily missed if you’re not looking out for them.

These cameos often feel like this fun little wink from the man himself. Here’s a look at every time King has appeared in an adaptation of his previously published works.

1. It: Chapter Two (2017)
2. Mr. Mercedes (2017-2019)
3. Under the Dome (2013-2015)
4. The Shining (1997) 
5. Thinner (1996)
6. The Langoliers (1995) 
7. Pet Sematary (1989)
8. Creepshow 1 and 2 (1982 and 1987)
9. The Stand (1994) 

It: Chapter Two (2017)

Stephen King’s cameo in It Chapter Two is different than most, and true fans noticed it right away. He appears as the grumpy shopkeeper who sells Bill Denborough his childhood bike. But the scene gets pretty meta when Bill offers to sign a copy of his book. 

King’s character refuses and says that he didn’t like the ending. Anyone who knows the long-running joke about King and his oft-debated endings probably got the joke.

The sequel saw Andy Muschietti as the returning director, and he actually talked about how excited he felt to direct King’s cameo because King almost never gives specific instructions for his roles. 

Mr. Mercedes (2017-2019)

King shows up in the Mr. Mercedes series in a pretty brutal way. He appears as a dead body with a knife sticking out of his neck, which is far from the usual tongue-in-cheek cameos he has.

The show comes from his Bill Hodges trilogy of books, which started with the novel Mr. Mercedes, followed by Finders Keepers, and finally End of Watch. The books lean more into crime than supernatural horror, although things get stranger later in the series.

Under the Dome (2013-2015)

In the second season premiere of Under the Dome, King appears as a casual diner customer for a few seconds, and the moment almost feels like he wandered into the café for lunch and the crew just filmed him. 

The show is based on his novel of the same name, a book that took him decades to finally complete. He started the first version in the 1970s and then returned to it much later. King also wrote the opening episode of season 2 himself, which is why his cameo fits nicely. 

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The Shining (1997) 

No, not the Stanley Kubrick movie. There has been another adaptation of The Shining, when ABC aired a miniseries version in 1997. King finally got the adaptation that followed his novel much more closely (in his opinion). 

And he made sure to show up in it, too. He played Gage Creed, the leader of the Gage Creed Orchestra at the Overlook Hotel. The name itself is a reference to Pet Sematary, so it also becomes an inside joke. 

The miniseries sticks closer to the book, which makes sense because King wrote the teleplay himself. He famously disliked the Kubrick version for drifting too far from the emotional heart of the story, especially Jack Torrance’s struggle with recovery and self-control.

Thinner (1996)

In Thinner, King pops up as a pharmacist who helps the main character, Billy Halleck, right before everything falls apart for him. The movie adapts the novel Thinner, which King originally published under his Richard Bachman pen name.

The film version stars Robert John Burke as Billy, a lawyer who hits a Romani woman with his car and later gets cursed to lose weight at an alarming rate, a premise that made for a very bizarre but fun movie. 

The Langoliers (1995) 

In The Langoliers, King appears as Tom Holby, the imaginary chairman of the board mentioned by Craig Toomy, one of the most anxious and unstable characters in the story. It’s such a tiny detail that viewers miss it on their first watch.

The story came from King’s 1990 collection Four Past Midnight, which included four novellas that leaned more into surreal and eerie territory rather than the traditional horror King was most known for at this time. 

Pet Sematary (1989)

King appears as the minister who performs a funeral service in 1989’s Pet Sematary. It’s a rather quiet cameo, but it fits the movie since the story deals with grief that runs deep. 

The novel of the same name came out in 1983, and it’s one of his hardest-hitting books. King took inspiration from a real-life family moment, and that fear shaped the whole story. The book follows the Creed family, who move to a quiet town that hides a burial ground with a terrible secret—the ability to resurrect the dead. 

Creepshow 1 and 2 (1982 and 1987)

One of King’s most famous cameos happens in the first Creepshow (1982), where he plays a big role as Jordy Verrill in the segment The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill. Jordy is a goofy and unlucky farmer who touches a fallen meteor and slowly turns into plant matter.

In Creepshow 2, King appears in a much smaller role as a truck driver in The Hitchhiker segment. Both of these movies adapt several of King’s short stories, with horror legend George A. Romero directing the first movie and penning the screenplay to the sequel.

The Stand (1994) 

In the 1994 adaptation of The Stand, Stephen King plays Teddy Weizak, one of the survivors rebuilding society after a deadly flu wipes out most of humanity. The story originally came from his massive and ambitious 1978 novel of the same name. King also wrote the screenplay for the 1994 miniseries, so his involvement went far beyond a small cameo. 

But that’s not the only time he’s appeared in an adaptation of The Stand. King also made a tiny cameo in the 2020 series version, although it was so brief that people sometimes miss it entirely since it’s just a photograph of him for a split second.