‘Sons of Anarchy’: How Stephen King’s Cameo Came About

Over its seven-season run, Sons of Anarchy had a few noteworthy guest stars. Among them was author Stephen King, who had a one-episode cameo in Season 3. The prolific author played Bachman, a “cleaner” who specialized in disposing of dead bodies with a penchant for oldies music. It was also a nod to King’s old pen name, Richard Bachman.

Back on May 5, SoA creator Kurt Sutter continued his epic social media Q&A with fans, and tweeted out a question from Facebook asking how King got involved — and if it was intimidating to have him on set. “I love Stephen. He’s such a mensch,” Sutter replied. “He’s become a mentor and a friend.” He also offered King his choice to write, direct or star in an episode, but apparently “all he wanted to do was ride a Harley.”

“So I put the Cleaner on a big red bagger and he came to play,” Sutter continued. “So much fun.” In the Season 3 episode, “The Caregiver,” Bachman was hired by Tig (Kim Coates) to help dispose of the body of Amelia (Monique Gabriela Curnen), the caregiver to Gemma’s (Katey Sagal) father. After Amelia looked up Gemma’s background online, she attempted to cash in on the reward for her capture. A few brief scuffles followed, and Amelia ended up fatally stabbing herself.

After Bachman arrived on his bright red bike (as King requested), he handed off a shopping list for Gemma, before using a basement sink to slowly get rid of Amelia’s corpse. He also ended up pocketing a praying hands sculpture to offset the cost of his services. While he was never seen or heard from again, he was one of the few characters to make it out of the show alive.

Speaking of Tig, Sutter also spoke up about the character back on May 12 and how Coates wasn’t his first choice for the role. Instead, he joked that he was hoping for Johnny Weissmuller, though he “apparently, he died in the ’80s.” Weismuller, who was born in 1904, started out as an Olympic champion swimmer who transitioned into acting. As far as his acting, he’s best remembered for starring as Tarzan in more than a dozen films. He later starred as comic character Jungle Jim throughout the late ’40s through the ’50s on the big and smalls screen.