Udo Kier, a German actor and cult icon who collaborated with everyone from Andy Warhol to Lars von Trier to Madonna, died on Sunday morning, according to his partner, artist Delbert McBride. He was 81.
Among the more than 200 films in his expansive body of work, Kier’s breakout collaborations with Warhol are among his most celebrated. Kier starred in the titular roles in both 1973’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” and 1974’s “Blood for Dracula.” Both directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Warhol, the films are subversive, sultry reimaginings of the classic Hollywood monsters, with Kier bringing a haunting yet comically inept spin on the title characters.
Most recently, Kier appeared in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s award-winning “The Secret Agent”. The film earned star Wagner Moura the honour for best actor at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Born Udo Kierspe in Cologne, Germany, in a hospital that was being bombed by Allied Forces, he moved to London at 18 after meeting Fassbinder in a bar.
“I liked the attention, so I became an actor,” he told Variety’s Peter Debruge in a 2024 interview. After working between Europe and the U.S. for many decades, Kier settled in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, where he lived in a former mid-century library and cultivated interests in art, architecture and collecting. He was a fixture at the Palm Springs Film Festival, where he warmly received accolades from fans.
Source: Variety
