‘Interview With the Vampire’ Author Anne Rice Dies at 80

Anne Rice, the author of gothic horror books such as Interview With the Vampire, died on Saturday due to complications resulting from a stroke. She was 80.

The author’s son, Christopher Rice, took to Facebook early Sunday morning to confirm the news. “She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died,” he wrote. “The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated.”

He continued, “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.”

Interview with the Vampire, the first book in her The Vampire Chronicles series, was published in 1976 and went on to be a best seller. It was later adapted by Neil Jordan into a 1994 film movie starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, and Kirsten Dunst.

Rice adapted the screenplay from her novel and the film gathered two Oscar nominations.

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