Anne Rice, influential author of “Interview with the Vampire,” died Saturday of complications from a stroke. He was 80 years old.
The author’s son Christopher broke the news on Facebook and said she would be buried in the family mausoleum at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans in a private ceremony.
Earlier tonight, my mother, Anne Rice, passed away from complications from a stroke. She left us almost nineteen years until the day my father, her husband Stan, died. Below is a statement that I posted on your Facebook page just moments ago. pic.twitter.com/g2VAK2XZjc
– Christopher Rice (@chrisricewriter) December 12, 2021
Born in New Orleans in 1941, Rice became famous around the world as a writer of Gothic fiction, and her books sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. In the early 1970s, while mourning the death of his daughter Michelle, he began to turn one of his stories into what became his first novel, the gothic horror “Interview with the Vampire,” which was published by Knopf in 1976. The novel ignites vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, who tells the story of his life to a journalist. Michelle served as the inspiration for the vampire girl Claudia.
The book was the first of ten in what is collectively known as “The Vampire Chronicles.” It was adapted by Neil Jordan as a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater, with Kirsten Dunst playing Claudia. Rice adapted the script from her novel, and the film garnered two Oscar nominations and a pair of BAFTA awards.
“Queen of the Damned,” based on one of the best-selling sequels to “Interview with the Vampire,” was adapted into a film in 2002. Other adaptations of Rice’s novels include Garry Marshall’s “Exit to Eden” (1994), starring Dana Delany. , Dan Aykroyd and Rosie O’Donnell and the Emmy-winning Showtime original film “The Feast of All Saints” (2001).
Earlier this month, AMC commissioned a series based on Rice’s “The Lives of the Mayfair Witches.” As revealed Variety, AMC had acquired the rights to “Lives of the Mayfair Witches” and “The Vampire Chronicles” last year, and casting for the latter was recently finalized.