Anne Rice, 'The Vampire Chronicles' Author, Dead At 80

Author Anne Rice, best known for her series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles, died Saturday (December 11) at the age of 80 due to complications resulting from a stroke, according to her son, Christopher Rice, announced on his verified Twitter account, as well as his mother's verified social media accounts.

"Earlier tonight, my mother, Anne Rice, passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke," Christopher Rice tweeted. along with a lengthy statement shared on his mother's account. "She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband, Stan, died."

Anne Rice, a New Orleans native, initially achieved global notoriety for her gothic fiction books, which sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

Rice later converted one of her stories into her first novel, Interview with the Vampire in 1976, while grieving the death of her daughter, Michelle, who served as an inspiration for the child vampire character Claudia.

The book was the first of 10 in the Vampire Chronicles series and later adapted into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater and Kirsten Dunst, earning Rice two Oscar nominations and a brace of BAFTA wins for the adapting the screenplay from her novel.

The 2002 film Queen of the Damned, starring the late singer Aaliyah, was also based on a novel from Rice's Interview with the Vampire series.

Other films inspired by Rice's novels include Exit to Eden (1994) and The Feast of All Saints.

AMC also recently ordered a series based on Rice's Lives of the Mayfair Witches in December after previously acquiring the rights to the novel and The Vampire Chronicles in 2020, Variety reports.