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Acclaimed 'Interview with the Vampire' author Anne Rice passes away at 80
Born and raised in New Orleans, Rice penned over 30 best-selling novels prior to her death.
Anne Rice, the celebrated supernatural fiction writer behind such classics as Interview with the Vampire, has died at the age of 80. The unfortunate news was confirmed on Twitter early Sunday morning by the author's son, Christopher Rice.
"Earlier tonight, my mother, Anne Rice, passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke," he wrote. "She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died." Christopher posted a lengthier statement on Facebook, voicing comfort over the fact that his mother "is now experiencing firsthand the glorious answers to many great spiritual and cosmic questions, the quest for which defined her career."
You can read the full post below:
Born and raised in New Orleans Louisiana, Rice attended San Francisco State University, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science. She also attended the college for a Master of Arts program in both English and Creative Writing. Her writing career spanned over 30 novels, beginning with Interview with the Vampire in 1976. The book spawned an entire series now known as "The Vampire Chronicles." A second series of interconnected novels — a collection now entitled "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches" — was born out of 1990's The Witching Hour.
"I ... think that process by which you become a writer is a pretty lonely one," Rice said during an interview from 2000. "We don't have a group apprenticeship like a violinist might training for an orchestra, or a ballet student might being in a company that does ballets. We don't have any of that. We write on our own time, we write when we can. There may be writing groups where people meet but its occasional. You really do it all at your own computer or your own typewriter by yourself."
Her final novel — Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat — was published in 2018. In May of 2020, AMC acquired the screen rights to 18 of Rice's books. The first project to come out of the deal will be a TV adaptation of Interview, which was famously translated into a feature film starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in 1994.
Sam Reid (Waiting for the Barbarians) and Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) have been cast to play the show's two main blood-suckers: Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac. Christopher Rice is executive producing the series alongside showrunner Rolin Jones (co-creator of HBO's Perry Mason).
Rice's passing was mourned on Twitter by Hollywood and horror veterans like Barbara Crampton, Viola Davis, George Takei, Joe Manganiello, Zack Stentz, Josh Gad, and even Fangoria Magazine.
