The anthology series Castle Rock ran for two seasons, in July 2018 and October 2019, and fans of Stephen King warmly received both. One thing that separates this show from other Stephen King adaptations is that it is not an interpretation of any of the author's books. While a town with the same name appeared in several Stephen King novels, there is no book with that title.One of the major characters of the first season is Ruth Deaver, who was played by Sissy Spacek. Born in December 1949, the actress was in her late 60s when the first season was released on streaming. As mentioned before, it is an anthology series; therefore, each season follows different characters."A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional Maine town of Castle Rock has figured prominently in King’s literary career: Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things, as well as novella The Body and numerous short stories (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption) are set in there. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that unites King’s themes and worlds and brings together the author’s most iconic and beloved characters. In Season 2, a feud between warring clans comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes, Stephen King’s nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock."How old was Sissy Spacek in Castle Rock? View this post on Instagram Instagram PostSissy Spacek was 68 years old for most of 2018, as she is 75 today, and will turn 76 on Christmas this year. She played the protagonist, Henry's mother, Ruth Deaver, a dementia patient in the first season, a role she was nominated for the Saturn Awards' Best Supporting Actress in Streaming Presentation. The most tragic event in season 1 is in the seventh episode.Titled "The Queen", the seventh episode ended on a shocking note as Ruth as the dementia patient, is hiding from The Kid (Bill Skarsgård), someone who has been haunting her for a while. She is holding a gun as her romantic partner, Alan Pangborn, tries to meet her. However, Ruth, believing him to be The Kid, fatally shoots Alan.Sam Shaw, Castle Rock's co-creator, addressed the thought process behind this decision in The Hollywood Reporter interview:"We didn’t take it lightly. What is it to put a period at the end of the story of this iconic character who readers love? It was very difficult. In a way, the aspect of the story that felt most right to us was that Alan Pangborn is such a gunslinger within the world of the Stephen King library. He’s such a knight or a hero that I think we never would have had the temerity to kill him off at the hands of a villain or a monster in the course of this story. I’ll leave it to the audience to come to their own conclusions about how they want to read this story and whether [“The Queen”] is a story about supernatural intervention, whether it’s a story about a woman who is a time traveler in some kind of uncanny way, whether it’s a story about a couple that are in a state of denial and they don’t want to reckon with Ruth’s dementia, that sort of go against medical advice. In the beginning of the episode, a doctor tells Ruth that it’s time to look into other living arrangements, but Ruth and Alan decide to go make a go of it on their own — and by the end of this episode, in which she kind of goes down a rabbit hole of anxiety, he’s dead. So, maybe it’s a story about a very real-world horror, which is Alzheimer’s. However you read it or interpret it, it felt to us like the ending that honored the legacy of this character is the one that involves love, a different kind of love story between these two characters than what you usually get to see on TV. We cared enormously about these two and about their relationship."In the same interview, Shaw also expressed happiness upon Stephen King approving this choice when the series was in its early stages of production:"It was really important to us to reach out and be sure that he was comfortable with the choice that we were making, and I’m gratified to say that we were really happy that he sanctioned the choice. We understand this is a character who means a lot to Steve. It means a lot to his readers. He’s a character that we care about very deeply. We were nervous to put the request in."Catch Sissy Spacek's spectacular performance in Castle Rock, which is streaming on Hulu.