Anne Rice, author of 'Interview with the Vampire,' dies at 80

Anne Rice, a popular author of gothic fiction who became famous for her 1976 book Interview with the Vampire, died on Dec. 11. She was 80 years old.

The news was confirmed by Rice’s son, Christopher, on Facebook.

“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,” Christopher said on Rice’s Facebook page.  

Rice was married to Stan Rice for 41 years, a poet who died in 2002. The couple had two children, Michele, who died of leukemia at age five, and Christopher.

“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.”

Rice’s Interview with the Vampire became one of the best-selling novels of all-time, spawned eleven sequels, and was later adapted into a movie of the same name in 1994 starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, and Antonio Banderas.

Aside from her vampire and gothic novels, Rice has also published historical novels and erotic fiction, the latter of which were published under th pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure. Rice’s books have reportedly sold over 150 million copies.

Rice’s son Christopher eventually went on to become an author himself with a debut novel in 2000.

“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,” said Christopher. “As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions."