The Stephen King Multiverse has, deep into the author’s fifth decade of publishing, seized more cultural real estate than ever before. “People love big shared universes,†his author son Joe Hill told USA Today, “and have tapped into the idea that Dad’s universe is as big as the Marvel universe, but it’s like for grown-ups.â€
King’s 60-plus novels and ten long collections of short fiction reflect and refract, connect to, and illuminate each other. The innumerable film and series adaptations, optioned and remade at an astonishing pace, are always conversing with themselves: Young Ben from the 1990 It cameos in the 2019 movie, the Pet Sematary remake flip-flops its child-deaths, Sissy Spacek stars in Castle Rock, and so forth.
The audiobook branch of the Kingverse is as vastly populated and cozily intermingled as the rest of his output, with hardly any entries left unrecorded — and plenty of his books are narrated by actors of note. As you might expect, a lot of the actors are veterans of King’s work; you’ve got options like Sissy Spacek reading Carrie, a Thinner actor doing Thinner, and the 1993 superstar-fest Nightmares & Dreamscapes, 23 stories told by a starry lineup that includes a half dozen King alums.
For the Constant Reader programmed to find and embrace all strands of the S.K. Multiverse, it’s a fascinating ball of yarn to unravel. As such, here’s our guide to some of the best actors to narrate Stephen King audiobooks.
Tim Curry
King résumé: Achieved horror-legend status as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in 1990’s It miniseries on ABC.
Narrated: “Crouch End†and “The Doctor’s Caseâ€Â from Nightmares & Dreamscapes (’93).
How’s his reading? It doesn’t get much more impressive than confidently verbalizing H.P. Lovecraft names like Yogsoggoth, R’Yeleh, and Nrtesn Nyarlahotep. King has next to no stories set outside the U.S., and Curry tackling these two English tales makes them even more of precious artifacts. He revs up S.K.’s already solid approximation of Britishness, particularly in “The Doctor’s Case,†lending authenticity to a Sherlock story told by Watson. Curry has controlled rhythm and distinct characterizations but doesn’t over-perform (his distressed American woman is perfect) — unsurprising, given his extensive voice-over history, from The Wild Thornberrys to the CGI Star Wars shows.
Kathy Bates
King résumé: Won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1990’s Misery and led ’95’s Dolores Claiborne.
Narrated: An abridged Desperation (’96) and “Chattery Teeth†from Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
How’s her reading? It takes a special person to successfully tell a story about murderous toy teeth; Bates is that narrator. It’s a novelty to hear Bates doing S.K. material in her own Tennessee-inflected voice, not the idiosyncratic intonations of Annie Wilkes or Mrs. Claiborne. The widely available Desperation is unabridged and read by the author; Bates’s take is abbreviated and elusive, but Publisher’s Weekly said she “takes the reins and holds listeners rapt from start to finish†and “has the inherent ability to make anything, no matter how over the top, sound realistic and immediate.â€
Sissy Spacek
King résumé: Best Actress Oscar nomination for the debut King-based film, 1976’s Carrie. Also had a key role — and wonderful episode centered on her — on Castle Rock.
Narrated: Carrie in 2005, with an intro read by King.
How’s her reading? Very up to the challenge of an epistolary novel that shifts narrative gears throughout. Her gentle Texas accent slightly reframes the characters and sense of place in a refreshing way; the scenes between Carrietta and her mother are in the best and most qualified hands; the prom is to die for.
Gary Sinise
King résumé: Starred in the CBS Stand miniseries as Stu Redman in 1993, and then reunited with Forrest Gump castmate Tom Hanks in The Green Mile.
Narrated: “The Fifth Quarter†from Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
How’s his reading? He barrels through in a dry, neutral-enough fashion that the Sinise-ness fades into the dullness. He has the right idea for a bleak story, though the delivery isn’t all the way there.
Paul Sparks
King résumé: Appeared in Castle Rock as Ace Merrill from “The Body†and Needful Things — nephew to Pop Merrill, played on the show by Shawshank veteran Tim Robbins.
Narrated: 2021’s Billy Summers.
How’s his reading? Perfectly world-weary for this twisty and powerful “one last job†hit-man story, often like he’s trying to catch his breath or keep his cool. William Wordsworth is paraphrased at one point — “the best writing is about strong emotions recalled in tranquility†— and it’s an apt summation of Sparks’s performance, which also lends itself to listening at higher speeds.
Steven Weber
King résumé: Jack Torrance in 1997’s King-written/produced Shining miniseries.
Narrated: It, a 2010 recording of the 1,138-pager from ’86.
How’s his reading? There’s debate about It’s place atop the King canon, but Weber’s audiobook might be peerless. From his first bonkers lines as Pennywise (whom he manifests delightfully) to the very last, Weber’s animation and invention never flag. By the time the Losers are facing It, past the 40-hour mark, it’s staggering to hear Weber continue bringing this powerful of a dramatization, giving every last psychotic decibel he’s got to the Ritual of Chüd. He does so much for the material, you want to give his Shining bonus points by association.
Whoopi Goldberg
King résumé: Starring in CBS All Access’s 2020 The Stand miniseries as Mother Abagail.
Narrated: “Suffer the Little Children†in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
How’s her reading? A commanding grip on the spellbinding emotional crescendo of a strict teacher driven to lethal insanity by a classroom of students who appear to be actual monsters. She does Miss Sidley’s brief hysterical moments with a grounded restraint that keeps the story feeling queasily real.
Bronson Pinchot
King résumé: The Langoliers miniseries (1995), stealing the show as the increasingly deranged Craig Toomey.
Narrated: 1984’s The Eyes of the Dragon.
How’s his reading? Pinchot is an expert reader with hundreds of titles under his belt, including work by Flannery O’Connor, Jeff VanderMeer, Jim Harrison, and Patricia Highsmith. His bassy, resonant voice fits this fantasy tale like a glove, and it helps having someone who is able to seamlessly access a reservoir of wryness in a novel featuring the ultimate agent of chaos, Randall Flagg.
Jeffrey DeMunn
King résumé: All Frank Darabont’s King adaptations — The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (’99), and The Mist (’07).
Narrated: Dreamcatcher (2001) and The Colorado Kid (’05).
How’s his reading? Breezy going on chipper, even lovable. His Mainers are dead-on, going beyond accents (yes, myriad shades) to all-around uncanny Yankee representation, which is critical considering how much these novels call for such performances. “How could she learn anything when she could only understand one word in every seven?†a Vacationland transplant wonders early in Colorado Kid. DeMunn never creates that problem.
David Morse
King résumé: The Langoliers miniseries (1995), The Green Mile (’99), Hearts in Atlantis (’01).
Narrated: Revival (2014) and “Uncle Otto’s Truck†from Skeleton Crew (’85), plus a story (Richard Matheson’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feetâ€) in Flight or Fright, the 2018 anthology co-edited and featuring a tale by S.K.
How’s his reading? Great embodiment of rough, part-broken men with remarkably authentic, muted-by-modernity Maine accents. Subtly ominous enough to sustain a slow build to big fireworks — Revival’s one of those classic King yarns that really hangs on a few pages of pure madness at the end; Morse nails it. It’s also fun hearing the pilot from The Langoliers read the airplane horror story that birthed that classic Twilight Zone episode.
Rob Lowe
King résumé: Two-time TV miniseries guy, with The Stand in ’94 and Salem’s Lot a decade later.
Narrated: “Dolan’s Cadillac†from Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
How’s his reading? Kinda campy and over-slick, which suits the tone but doesn’t improve an already protracted story.
Yeardley Smith
King résumé: 1986’s King-helmed Maximum Overdrive, Smith’s third feature and King’s only time in the director’s chair.
Narrated: “Rainy Season†from Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
How’s her reading? A surreal joy, considering it’s the voice of Lisa Simpson reading about frogs with needle-teeth pouring like hail onto two sacrificial out-of-towners. Especially fun are the icky, frantic climax and her voice for Henry Eden, one of a thousand drawling, porch-loving Mainers of the Kingverse.
Stephen Lang
King résumé: The 2014 film A Good Marriage, written by King and based on his 2010 novella.
Narrated: “Throttle†(’09) and “In the Tall Grass†(’12), stories King co-authored with Joe Hill (NOS4A2, Locke & Key).
How’s his reading? Crisp and gruff, but never missing a chance to give someone a quirky, carefully crafted voice. Lang approaches the grim stuff with a serious menace that gives the scariest parts the best possible chance of actually scaring you.
Mare Winningham
King résumé: HBO’s The Outsider, a 2020 miniseries based on the 2018 supernatural crime novel, as Laurie Anderson, wife to detective protagonist Ralph (Ben Mendelsohn). Also a couple episodes of Under the Dome.
Narrated: Lisey’s Story (’06), “The Gingerbread Girl†from Just After Sunset (’08), and “Morality†from The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (’15).
How’s her reading? Winningham proficiently translates these three women-led narratives without over-performing, even giving the more shocking moments a relative smoothness.
Joe Mantegna
King résumé: Mobster Richie “the Hammer†Ginelli in 1996’s Thinner, based on the lethally problematic ’84 Richard Bachman book.
Narrated: Thinner and “Popsyâ€Â from Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
How’s his reading? Soft-spoken and flecked with a New York accent, like Richie with a love for reading. Unfortunately, he has to compete with way too much grating music in Thinner.
Kathleen Chalfant
King résumé: Starred in Storm of the Century, ABC’s ’99 miniseries penned by King, as Joanna Stanhope of Little Tall Island, home of Dolores Claiborne.
Narrated: “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive†from The Bazaar of Bad Dreams alongside Brooke Bloom (Homecoming).
How’s her reading? She and Bloom equally yet very differently bring to life the story’s hopeful start and its devastating conclusion — a sadder child-endangerment story in some ways than Pet Sematary, Cujo, and It. The enthusiasm of the narrators is complete. Chalfant gets to read a nice poem (“The rising mist turns to gold dust / The clouds boil apart in ragged tressesâ€) as well as an all-time final line: “What the fuck does it look like?†she says.
Becky Ann Baker
King résumé: 1999’s Storm of the Century miniseries.
Narrated: 2002’s From a Buick 8 (alongside James Rebhorn, Bruce Davison, and others) and, the same year, “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French†from Everything’s Eventual.
How’s her reading? Notably different vibes on her two offerings, but both are grounded, magnetizing, absorbing, and welcome reminders to revisit her strong turn in Storm.
Hope Davis
King résumé: Liz Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), mother to the late Anton Yelchin’s Bobby.
Narrated: “The Little Green God of Agony†from The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
How’s her reading? Right down the middle. Even the vintage supernatural-clusterfuck ending doesn’t take Davis too far out of her zone of moderation and straightforwardness.
Marin Ireland
King résumé: The Boogeyman, director Rob Savage’s forthcoming feature adaptation of the haunting ’70s short story.
Narrated: 2022’s Gwendy’s Final Task, co-written by Richard Chizmar.
How’s her reading? Sometimes spirited, sometimes flat; goofy bad-guy acting. Ireland is in the unenviable position of finishing off a trilogy whose first two books already had a distinct tone and personality set by Maggie Siff.
Frances Sternhagen
King résumé: Misery, the King-written miniseries Golden Years, and The Mist.
Narrated: Dolores Claiborne and “Gramma†from Skeleton Crew.
How’s her reading? Dolores is a nine-hour monologue with zero chapter breaks, and Sternhagen’s accent and engagement are on point, if not an exact fit for the inimitable Dolores. Her “Gramma†read is a perfect match.
James Woods
King résumé: Cat’s Eye, the ’85 anthology film penned by King, directed by Cujo’s Lewis Teague, and featuring Drew Barrymore a year after Firestarter.
Narrated: “Secret Window, Secret Garden†from Four Past Midnight (’90).
How’s his reading? Strong, with a distinct and successful voice for John Shooter, the Mississippi-bred Tyler Durden to Mort Rainey’s perplexed Ed Norton. Notably more robust coming from the pipes of a 43-year-old Woods rather than the aged alt-right fusspot we’ve been saddled with for a long time.
Holter Graham
King résumé: Made his debut as a 13-year-old who gets steamrolled in Maximum Overdrive.
Narrated: Christine and “Ur,†the Kindle-exclusive novella later collected in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
How’s his reading? A total pro with a résumé creeping up on 200 books, Graham has the gift of sounding like he wrote the material and loves it only as its author could.
Joe Hill
King résumé: Snagged a role in Creepshow’s wraparound segments as a 9-year-old in 1982. Offscreen, he stars as King’s middle child.
Narrated: A passage from 2019’s The Institute, memorialized in a live-event recording appended to S.K.’s On Writing: A Memorial of the Craft for the 20th-anniversary edition.
How’s his reading? Joe’s a killer narrator who’s recorded some of his own stories, and his presence in the updated On Writing is a joy. He introduces his dad to a lucky crowd and reads from The Institute — a damn good book — for a few minutes. (Something extra special transpires next, before they just have a fantastic conversation: King reads from Hill’s Full Throttle foreword, “Who’s Your Daddy?,†wherein the Locke & Key creator talks about growing up with S.K. As another bonus, the audiobook also includes Joe’s fellow author and brother Owen King reading his New Yorker piece about recording audiobooks for his pops.)
Stephen King
King résumé: No. 1 author of Stephen King books and No. 1 cameo actor in King-based movies, as recently as It Chapter Two this year and Mr. Mercedes in 2017.
Narrated: On Writing, Needful Things, Desperation, Bag of Bones, four Dark Tower books, Elevation, parts of Hearts in Atlantis, numerous stories across nearly all his collections, assorted intros and afterwords. In 2022, he added some refreshing heft to the Fairy Tale audiobook by essentially cameoing as the cantankerous, ailing Mr. Bowditch for a crucial monologue delivered into a voice recorder.
How’s his reading? In one sense, his recordings are the purest listenable interpretations you’ll find. But it can feel like you’re watching him do a live reading for his fans rather than experiencing it primarily as a story — neither Stephen King the man nor his semi-scratchy voice and mild Maine accent can always blend into his own writing. Every now and then you’ll come across a workmanlike section, but for the most part, King provides the overall warm experience you might expect from the author himself.