Interview with the Vampire Author Anne Rice Passes Away

Horror icon Anne Rice, best known for writing Interview with the Vampire and its follow-up books, has passed away. Rice’s son Christopher revealed on social media that the prolific and best-selling author passed away on Saturday at the age of 80.

Christopher announced the news on Facebook, writing:

”This is Anne’s son Christopher and it breaks my heart to bring you this sad news. Earlier tonight, Anne passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke. She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died. The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated. As my mother, her support for me was unconditional — she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt. As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions. In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage, awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog laced hills of the San Francisco Bay Area to the magical streets of New Orleans to the twinkling vistas of Southern California. As she kissed Anne goodbye, her younger sister Karen said, “What a ride you took us on, kid.” I think we can all agree. Let us take comfort in the shared hope that Anne is now experiencing firsthand the glorious answers to many great spiritual and cosmic questions, the quest for which defined her life and career. Throughout much of her final years, your contributions to this page brought her much joy, along with a profound sense of friendship and community. Anne will be interred in our family’s mausoleum at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans in a private ceremony. Next year, a celebration of her life will take place in New Orleans. This event will be open to the public and will invite the participation of her friends, readers and fans who brought her such joy and inspiration throughout her life.”

While Rice was most famous for her Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches books, she was a prolific author who also wrote erotic fiction and Christian books including the Christ The Lord series. Her published works sold nearly 100 million copies and spanned a 45-year career, starting with 1976’s Interview with the Vampire. The book, which was rejected by multiple publishers, initially received mixed reviews but eventually became a hit and has sold 8 million copies.

Interview with the Vampire was followed by two historical novels and then a sojourn into erotic fiction, including Exit to Eden which was written under the pseudonym Anne Rampling and was turned into a film in 1994. Rice returned to supernatural fiction with the Interview sequel The Vampire Lestat, which put the supporting character from the first novel in the spotlight. The Vampire Chronicles spanned 13 novels, with the last being 2018’s Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat.

In addition the Vampire Chronicles, Rice wrote the Mayfair Witches series and the Ramses The Damned books which are set in the same world as Lestat and company. All told, she had 36 novels published and one non-fiction work, 2008’s Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.

Rice became a worldwide household name when Neil Jordan directed the 1994 film based on Interview. Starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, the film became a box office smash. Rice was initially very outspoken about the casting of Cruise to play Lestat, expressing concern about whether he could play the role although she eventually praised Cruise’s performance. The follow-up film was Queen of the Damned, which was a failure both critically and commercially and Rice said that she felt the filmmakers “mutilated” her novel in attempting to adapt it.

AMC acquired the rights to both The Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches in May of 2020, and adaptations of both Interview with the Vampire and The Mayfair Witches have been ordered to series.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends, and many fans of Anne Rice. The horror genre would be a very different place without her.