Stephen King: What a Great Actor!...Not! Quiz

Answer: Knightriders

"Knightriders" (1981), about a band of entertainers performing medieval acts from town to town (such as jousting on motorcycles) starred Ed Harris, Gary Lahti, and Tom (Makeup and Special Effects Artist Extraordinaire) Savini. The main theme of the film concerned the internal problems and strife of the troupe, along with the continuous harassment they encountered from local authorities. Steve, along with his wife Tabitha, got the small parts of Mr. and Mrs. Hoagie Man, as he was already on the set collaborating with Romero for the then upcoming "Creepshow". Steve's character was an obnoxious guy sitting in the bleachers eating a sandwich at the fairgrounds.

Stephen King has won a multitude of writing awards for his body of work, including the Hugo Award for the 1982 non-fiction, "Danse Macabre", the O. Henry Award for 1996's "The Man in the Black Suit", the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (2003), the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), as well as numerous wins and nominations for the Bram Stoker Award, the Horror Guild, the World Fantasy Awards, and the Locus Awards.

Answer: Jordy Verrill

"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" was the second of five separate horror segments of "Creepshow" (1982, directed by George Romero). The film was hosted by the Creep, an animated skeletal apparition which came to life from a comic book, and provided comments on each segment much like the Cryptkeeper in HBO's "Tales from the Crypt". The film also paid homage to the classic horror comics of the 1950s. Stephen's son, Joe, made a cameo appearance in the beginning of the film, as the young boy reading the "Creepshow" comic book. Steve's character, obviously not the brightest bulb in the bin, basically got infected by an alien spore and was turned into a plant.

King wrote the fantasy-themed "The Eyes of the Dragon" (1987) for (and dedicated it to) his daughter Naomi.

Answer: The Langoliers

"The Langoliers" (1995, directed by Tom Holland, starring Patricia Wettig, Dean Stockwell, and David Morse), was adapted from the Stephen King novella of the same name, published in "Four Past Midnight" (1990). The film centered on a group of airline passengers who fell asleep during their flight, and woke up to discover that the majority of the crew and passengers who were on the aircraft had vanished without a trace. A surviving pilot on board was able to land the plane in Maine, only to find that there was no one to be found, and that they were completely alone. King played a business executive conducting a meeting in a dream sequence.

In his semi-autobiographical, semi-tutorial book "On Writing" (2000), Steve related that his first "really good idea" came about in the late '50s while watching his mom stick the old green S&H trading stamps into the stamp-book. Unfortunately, "Happy Stamps" (about a guy doomed to lick over 11 million counterfeit S&H stamps) never did get published.

Answer: The Stand

In my opinion, this is one of the best film or TV adaptations of King's work. It was directed by Mick Garris, and featured the talents of a wonderful group of actors, including Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Ray Walston, and Ossie Davis (among others). Kathy Bates, who had earlier won the Oscar for her role in "Misery" (1990), had the small, uncredited part of Rae Flowers. The film was basically a "good vs. evil" story, and separated the survivors of a world-wide plague into one of the two categories. The "good" survivors converged on Boulder, CO., under the direction of Mother Abigail (Ruby Dee), while the "bad" groups gravitated to Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan) in Las Vegas, NV. Steve played one of the "good" survivors of the plague in Boulder.

Stephen worked for many years to get "The Stand" to the big screen, but simply could not cut down the screenplay enough to make a film version work to his satisfaction. He finally decided to go with the TV mini-series option.

Answer: Big band conductor

This was another good adaptation (I personally liked the mini-series better than the Stanley Kubrick film version, but a lot of people will disagree), again directed by Mick Garris, and starring Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay. It's been a while since I read the book version or saw Kubrick's film, but I'm fairly sure the character of Gage Creed was written for the TV version exclusively, although another character of that name can be found in the book "Pet Sematary" (1983). He can be seen during Jack Torrance's (Weber) hallucinations.

Many of Steve's ideas came to him while working in various part-time jobs when he was in his teens or early 20s. He got the inspiration for "Carrie" (1974) while working as a janitor at a high school, cleaning the women's showers. He states he really didn't like the characters (or even the book) very much, and actually almost abandoned the entire storyline. However, he was convinced by his wife to go through with the project, which was obviously a good thing, as "Carrie" became his first published novel, selling over a million paperback copies within its first year.

Answer: The Hitch-Hiker

"Creepshow 2" (1987, directed by Michael Gornick, Screenplay by George Romero) also starred George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour (her last film), and Tom Savini (as the Creep). The "Hitch-Hiker" and "Old Chief Wood'nhead" were adapted from unpublished King short stories (at least I've never seen them in print), and "The Raft" was published in 1985 as part of the "Skeleton Crew" short story collection. The "Crate" was a segment in the original "Creepshow". There was not a lot of screen time for King in this roll, just one quick sequence.

Steve met future wife-to-be Tabitha (also a published author) in 1969 while both were students at the University of Maine.

Answer: Dr. Bangor

"Thinner" (1996) was directed by Tom Holland ("The Langoliers", 1995) and starred Robert J. Burke, Michael Constantine, and Joe Mantegna. This film was not a bad adaptation (in my opinion), and the book, while not his best work, had a fairly decent storyline. The profession of Dr. Bangor was a pharmacist.

King contributed stories and articles to his brother Dave's small newspaper - "Dave's Rag" - while still in high school.

Answer: A bus

This is one I have to admit I have yet to see, but I do plan on renting it one of these days. The series was directed by Kenneth Fink and Allen Coulter, and starred Felicity (TV's "Desperate Housewives", 2004) Huffman, Ed Lauter, and R.D. Call. Steve's character drove for Greyhound.

Steve was watching a movie at a Bangor, ME. drive-in with a buddy when Tabitha went into labor with their son Joe. According to King, he (and everyone else) was informed of this event by an announcement from the manager, which came through the drive-in speakers. Fellow movie-goers congratulated him by honking their horns and flashing their lights as he left.

Answer: Cemetery caretaker

This was a film directed by Mick Garris, and starred Brian Kraus (TV's "Charmed", 1998), Madchen Amick (TV's "Joey", 2004 and "ER", 1994), and Ron Perlman ("Hellboy", 2004). "Sleepwalkers" was also based on another unpublished King novel. Other cameos included Mark Hamill ("Star Wars", 1977), John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London", 1981), Joe Dante ("The Howling", 1981), Tobe Hooper ("Poltergeist", 1982), and Clive Barker ("Hellraiser" 1987). This was a very impressive line-up of the genre's representatives, if I may say. Steve had a very small role, with no lines as far as I recall.

Much of the pain that Steve went through after being struck by a van in 1999 was described in the novel "Dreamcatcher" (2001), in which Gary Jones (one of the central characters) was injured much in the same way. King wrote the novel in longhand as a self-prescribed therapy.

Answer: Pizza delivery guy

Directed by Craig R. Baxley, "Rose Red" starred Nancy Travis, Julian Sands, and Kevin Tighe. King based the storyline on a loose adaptation of Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mystery House, located in San Jose, CA. In many ways, it also resembles the novel "The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), which King has mentioned on several occasions as being one of his favorite books. There's not much to say about Steve's role here, he pretty much played a guy delivering pizza.

According to his biography, Steve came up with the Richard part of his Richard Bachman pen-name from Richard Stark (the pen name for Donald Westlake), and Bachman after the band "Bachman-Turner Overdrive". 1973's "Takin' Care Of Business" just happened to be playing on the radio when he was deciding on a pen-name.

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