‘Interview with the Vampire’ author Anne Rice dies at age 80

By Andy Rose, CNN

Anne Rice, author of the best-selling Vampire Chronicles novel series, died Saturday, her son announced on social media. She was 80 years old.

She passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke, Christopher Rice said.

Rice’s biggest success was her first novel, “Interview with the Vampire,” which was published in 1976 and introduced the character of the vampire Lestat, who would be the central character in the 13-book Chronicles series, the most recent of which was published in 2018.

“I had an idea of Lestat as the man of action, the man who could do things that I couldn’t do,” Rice said in a talk at Southern Illinois University in 2010.

“Interview with the Vampire” was made into a successful feature film in 1994, helping to reignite interest in the vampire genre which continued with the TV series “The Vampire Diaries” and the “Twilight” film series.

Although she lived most of her life in California, Rice was a native of New Orleans and set many of her stories there, according to her website biography.

Rice’s son, Christopher Rice, said he was at his mother’s bedside when she died.

Anne Rice will be buried in a private ceremony in New Orleans, with a public memorial planned next year, he said.

The-CNN-Wire
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