Stephen King Movie Characters

Stephen King's writing is a bit hit or miss with me, but I tend to enjoy most of the film adapations of his work.

If you had to choose, whose portrayal of a Stephen King character do you enjoy the most on film?


For me it's a toss up of Nicholson's Jack Torrance, Kathy Bates' Anne Wilkes in "Misery", or Sissy Spacek in "Carrie".

Annie Wilkes in "Misery" for me too. I read the book prior to the movie coming out and loved it. Kathy Bates was alternately terrifying and hilarious, and she looked EXACTLY how I pictured Annie when I was reading the book!!

The clown in "IT"

Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith in "The Dead Zone" was the first one that sprang to mind.

Yeardley ("Lisa Simpson") Smith in "Maximum Overdrive," screaming "WE MADE YOUUUUU!"

I was always kinda partial to the nerdy kid that owned "Christine", whatever his name was.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I was always kinda partial to the nerdy kid that owned "Christine", whatever his name was.

Arnie Cunningham.

The actor that played the role (Keith Gordon) has since moved on to being a director, he has done a few independent features as well as 10 episodes of Dexter and several other shows.

S.D. wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I was always kinda partial to the nerdy kid that owned "Christine", whatever his name was.

Arnie Cunningham.

The actor that played the role (Keith Gordon) has since moved on to being a director, he has done a few independent features as well as 10 episodes of Dexter and several other shows.

Ahhh yea, Arnie!! I'll always remember him from 'Christine' and also playing Rodney's son in 'Back to School'.

Jack Torrance. Johnny Smith and Anne Wilks were pretty darn good too

Fat Freddy wrote:

Annie Wilkes in "Misery" for me too. I read the book prior to the movie coming out and loved it. Kathy Bates was alternately terrifying and hilarious, and she looked EXACTLY how I pictured Annie when I was reading the book!!

Same for me. I too read the book before seeing the movie and the frumpy look Kathy Bates had in the movie was exactly what I had pictured in my mind.

The dog in Cujo works for me.

In other aspects of King's work, it is either a good actor overplaying a charachter or a bad actor trying to hard to emulate what the good actor did in another King movie.

Tim Curry as Pennywise was gleefully evil in It. I also agree with others that Kathy Bates was very good as Annie Wilkes. Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance is also great. I also enjoyed Ruby Dee as Mother Abigail in The Stand. Matt Frewer as Trashcan Man was also a good casting move, IMO. He managed to come off as bat sh*t crazy, while still being a sympathetic character.

More or less, what you guys said.

I hate it when King books are TV shows, though. To this day I want a big screen IT and The Stand, arguably my two favorite one book stories.