Most writers spend years alone with a manuscript, so it’s easy to see why some of them say yes when a film crew offers a small part. A cameo is a quick way to stand inside the world they invented. Often it lasts only a few seconds.
The appearances below range from a prominent bit of acting to a background face you’d miss if you blinked. Each one is a real, documented cameo in an adaptation of the author’s own book.
Peter Benchley in Jaws (1975)
The author who made millions of people question their summer vacation plans plays a reporter in a brief scene in the 1975 film adaptation, which Benchley co-wrote. He’s easy to overlook, since the scene is short and the shark is the real star.
He talks directly to the camera as he plays a newscaster reporting on the killings happening on the beach. It’s a small joke at the story’s expense, with the man who created the panic covering it on screen.
Stephenie Meyer in Twilight (2008)
Meyer slipped into the first film of the saga as a diner patron. The moment is brief, and it occurs for a split second when Bella meets her dad at a diner.
She came back for another one later. Meyer also made a subtle cameo in Breaking Dawn: Part 1, as a guest at Edward and Bella’s wedding. Two quiet appearances, spread across the franchise, were enough for fans to go hunting for her.
Stephen King in Pet Sematary (1989)
King may be the most frequent author cameo of all. He has appeared in many of his movies, including Thinner, Rose Red, The Stand and The Shining. He has taken turns as a minister, a pharmacist, and a pizza delivery man, among other roles.
In Pet Sematary, he plays a priest at a funeral. More recently, he turned up in It Chapter Two (2019) as a gruff shopkeeper who tells Bill his writing stinks. That second role is a running joke about endings that King seems happy to play along with.
John Irving in The World According to Garp (1982)
Irving has long been devoted to wrestling, so his cameo makes sense. He chose to appear as a wrestling referee in the movie adaptation of The World According to Garp. The part took a fair amount of scuttling around on the floor.
The match is the one in which Garp, played by Robin Williams, competes at Steering School. The cameo draws on a real interest of the author’s, and the film gets a bit of authenticity from it.
S.E. Hinton in The Outsiders (1983)
Hinton’s novel was famously written while she was still a teenager. It became a 1983 film starring names such as Ralph Macchio, Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze.
She isn’t hard to place once you know where to look. Hinton makes a brief cameo as a nurse in Dally’s hospital room. Another source places the nurse scene after the church fire.
Sara Gruen in Water for Elephants (2011)
Gruen’s cameo comes in a scene that is easy to remember. Robert Pattinson brushes by an astonished woman watching Rosie the elephant steal produce.
That woman is Water for Elephants author Sara Gruen. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, though it suits a story set around a traveling circus, where a crowd of onlookers fits naturally.
Jonathan Safran Foer in Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
Foer’s novel came out in 2002. It was adapted into a 2005 film starring Elijah Wood.
His cameo is a quiet one, set in a cemetery. Elijah Wood’s version of Jonathan is visiting his grandfather’s grave, and in the background a groundskeeper is blowing leaves. The man keeping the cemetery tidy is the real Jonathan Safran Foer.
Jean Shepherd in A Christmas Story (1983)
Shepherd’s cameo is one of the most memorable on this list. The writer has a memorable scene as the man who sends Ralphie and his brother to the end of the Santa line.
That makes sense for a story drawn from his own recollections. Shepherd also narrates the film, so audiences hear his voice throughout and then briefly see him on screen in the department store.
