Stephen King - 77: how he looks today, why he came drunk to his mother's funeral and almost died because of a dog

Today, on September 21, the famous American writer Stephen King celebrates his 77th birthday. The name of the "King of Horror," as the author was called because of his work, is known to every connoisseur of mystery novels around the world.

The novelist has always been famous for his sharp words, and he often participates in public discussions. In particular, King supports Ukraine in its bloody war with the occupiers. He has repeatedly written about this on his page on the X platform. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the writer has refused to cooperate with Russian publications. In the fall of 2024 King supported the Armed Forces' offensive in Kursk.

Childhood

The biography of the birthday boy could be a novel in itself. Stephen was born in Portland, was the only blood child in the family, and also had a foster brother. When the future author was 2 years old, his father left home and never returned.

Poverty forced King to grow up early: he started writing at the age of 7, worked part-time as an English teacher after college, and worked in a laundry for a while. At the age of 16, Stephen was "introduced" to drugs and alcohol.

He came to his mother's funeral drunk

King once thought about joining the army and fighting in Vietnam, but the military "rejected" him because of his many illnesses. At the university, Stephen met his future wife Tabitha. It was she who saved the manuscripts of the self-critical writer, which he decided to get rid of. Later, these writings became the beginning of the novel Carrie, which brought the author fame.

In 1974, King's mother, who had been battling cancer for a long time, died. The writer came to his mother's funeral drunk and gave a drunken eulogy. And all because Stephen received his first fee of about 200 thousand dollars, which affected his already questionable lifestyle. After 16 years of addictions, the celebrity still managed to pull himself together with the help of therapy, his wife and friends.

Almost dying because of a dog

In the summer of 1999, King went for a traditional evening walk, but did not return home - he was hit by a car. As it turned out, the driver of the minivan let his guard down because of the dog in the back seat. Stephen, in turn, was reading a book and not paying attention to the road.

According to eyewitnesses, the car hit the writer from behind, the driver was not moving too fast. As a result of the accident, the star was under the supervision of doctors for a long time and could not work fully. King even said that he planned to stop writing immediately after completing the epic The Dark Tower, where he described his experience. However, many new works by the author were later published.

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