Top 10 Stephen King Cameos!

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

One week from today, Stephen King’s long-awaited DARK TOWER finally erects in theaters everywhere. Are you gonna go check it out? I’ll be real, as much as I love the material and Idris Elba headlining, the more footage I see of the flick, the more I tend to think it’ll be yet another disappointing cinematic King adaptation. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s my gut feeling at the moment.

Far more certain though is how enjoyable it is every time King makes a cameo appearance in a film or TV show, especially in movies that are based on his books. We’re not saying he’s gonna show up in THE DARK TOWER, but given the dozen or so cameos he’s done in the past, we can’t quite rule it out either. We can however take a ruling on King’s best cameo performances. You down? Let’s do this sh*t…cop a peek at our Top 10 Favorite Stephen King Screen Cameos below!

#1. JORDY VERRILL (CREEPSHOW)

It ain’t easy being a f*cked-up Green Plant Man! Just one year after his very first screen cameo in KNIGHTRIDERS, The King reunited with what would become a longtime friend and collaborator in the late great George A. Romero, this time to play the title character of Jordy Verrill in the anthological horror flick CREEPSHOW. Ah yes, the lonesome death of a local yokel indeed…as King shows off acting chops as a redneck rube who opts to blow his own head off with a shotgun rather than be subsumed by the alien vegetation that has overtaken his entire body. Great fun! No wonder Romero invited the King back for round 2!

#2. MINISTER (PET SEMATARY)

Not sure about you, but there’s something about Stephen King surrounded by tombstones in a priestly frock that makes my neck-hair stiffen a bit. It’s all so wrong! But of course, in PET SEMATARY, it’s all so right, as the regal King plays a minister who heads a procession after the death of young Gage Creed. “May the lord bless you and keep you” he utters in weaselly high pitch, concluding with “may the lord make his face to shine upon you.” Sh*tting my pants over here! For a great in depth look at the film, check out the doc Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary!

#3. THE CLEANER (SONS OF ANARCHY)

Who caught King’s badass cameo as Dick Bachman (notice the nom de plume), aka The Cleaner, in a 2010 episode of Sons of Anarchy? Your loss if not, as it was not only a rare out-of-genre appearance, but completely opposite of the goofy cornballs we’ve seen him portray in the past as well. Look at the dude, leather-clad, shaded up, locks flowing, cold saddling the steel steed…GANGSTA! Akin to Keitel’s Wolf in PULP FICTION, Bachman is the go-to man for cleaning up dead-red messes…and demands 80s music to be played while doing it. AC/DC perhaps?!

#4. TEDDY WEIZAK (THE STAND)

Look at the King and his boy gripping the steel like he was ’87 Schwarzenegger right here. Sick! While definitely an uneven series overall, I always dug how SK got to play an extended 2-episode arc as Teddy Weizak in THE STAND. I mean, this isn’t just a quick wink and nod cameo, King is sharing emotional acting scenes with Gary f*cking Sinise here. And holding his own! That one exchange where he has to break the news that Sinise’s baby has been infected with the virus? Tender. One minute he’s aiming to kill, the next he’s throwing hugs and killing with kindness. It’s in the running for King’s best overall acting turn!

#5. MAN AT ATM (MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE)

Cocaine is a hell of a drug! Oh but in the 80s it was pedal to the metal, excess baggage, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE! It’s true friends, in his only directorial credit to date, King has been on record admitting that he was “coked out of my mind” during the entire making of the film, and that he’d like to someday try directing again while sober. He also claimed MO as the worst film adaptation of all his books (he’s being kind). As for his cameo, looks like he just happened to be rolling film while withdrawing more coke money. Peep the lockjaw! Cinema Verite right there!

#6. HOAGIE MAN (KNIGHTRIDERS)

How’s that for a face?! In what we believe is his very first screen cameo, what better horror director to work for than the late great George A. Romero? Granted, KNIGHTRIDERS isn’t quite a horror story, but still, a long-lasting friendship was forged between the two horror icons, and it all starts here with King as Hoagie Man. That is, a sandwich stuffed heckler at a medieval parade that disgustingly utters the phrase “You know, I don’t have the balls to wear a thing like that!” Never mind the face, how’s that for your very first line of recorded dialogue in a film?!

#7. CEMETERY GROUNDSKEEPER (SLEEPWALKERS)

Quick, call out the cinematic link between these two horror bona fides? That’s right y’all, it’s Stephen King giving the business to Tobe Hooper as the cemetery groundskeeper in SLEEPWALKERS. Remember, Hooper directed King’s SALEM’S LOT thirteen years before Mick Garris got them to cameo side by side in the incestuous feline-fearing horror-show. Not inside baseball enough for you? How about the 50s song “Sleep Walk” by Santo & Johnny as the mood-setting score? All fun trivia, but nothing makes more sense than having the King preside over the dead in a graveyard. Perfect casting!

#8. BAND LEADER (THE SHINING MINISERIES)

In what’s probably his most unrecognizable cameo to date, King did his pal Mick Garris a friendly favor by showing up as the creepily mustachioed band leader named Gage Creed (note the name) in the 1997 SHINING miniseries. Now, we all know of King’s displeasure with Kubrick’s adaptation, and that ABC only allowed him to adapt this miniseries on the condition he wouldn’t bad mouth the film version. Of course, we all know the film is far superior to the miniseries, despite King’s heavy involvement in the latter. Cool factoid though? Both Sam Raimi and Frank Darabont also cameo in the miniseries. Thinking on it, Raimi should direct a King book!

#9. TRUCK DRIVER (CREEPSHOW 2)

Since it worked so well the first time, goddamn right an encore was in order! The great thing about King playing a hillbilly Trucker in CREEPSHOW 2 is how different it is in look, tone and demeanor from his extended cameo in the first flick. Here he plays a Truck Driver who introduces himself with the hilarious line reading of “Hey buddy, what the f*ck happened”?! And when told of a hit-and-run, he responds to the next lady’s query with “…a guy got creamed, what’s it look like happened”! It’s the kind of quick cameo that could go unnoticed, but damn if doesn’t always induce an inside joke chuckle!

#10. TOM HOLBY (THE LANGOLIERS)

Are you f*cking kidding me? While we almost got this bash off to start with King’s most recent onscreen cameo, as a diner patron in the TV series Under The Dome (based on his book), or even King’s cameo as Dr. Bangor (as in Maine) in THINNER, but we cannot omit this foul 2-episode turn as Tom Holby in the 1995 miniseries The Langoliers. Sheesh! That sweaty widow’s-peak-comb-over? That disgusting set of Milton glasses, that ultra-greasy pedo-stache and psychotic grin? Don’t know whether to piss myself from laughter or sheer terror. Tom Holby the boss! (a Tom Holland reference? The director not Spidey).