Actor Udo Kier dead aged 81

Udo Kier, the German actor and cult cinema icon, has died at the age of 81.

The star’s partner Delbert McBride confirmed his passing, which marks the end of a six-decade career in which he appeared in more than 200 films spanning avant-garde, horror and arthouse cinema.

His most celebrated early work includes the titular roles in Paul Morrissey’s Warhol-produced cult classics Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974).

Born Udo Kierspe, Kier made a name for himself in Europe, working with the legendary Rainer Werner Fassbinder on films such as The Stationmaster’s Wife, The Third Generation and Lili Marleen.

Later, at the Berlin Film Festival, he met Gus Van Sant, who later helped him obtain a U.S. work permit and a SAG card.

In 1991, he broke into American cinema with a supporting role in My Own Private Idaho, alongside River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.

Kier’s long-standing collaboration with Lars von Trier began in the late 1980s with Epidemic, followed by Europa.

He starred in von Trier’s horror-thriller series The Kingdom in the 1990s and 2000s, and also appeared in Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Melancholia and Nymphomaniac: Vol. II.

In the 1990s, Udo also took roles in Hollywood films including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Armageddon and Blade.

His beginnings were dramatic – he arrived in Cologne in 1944, with the hospital where he was born bombed during the Second World War, and he and his mother survived by digging themselves out of the rubble.

In his youth, he worked in a factory before moving to London to learn English, where he was discovered by director Michael Sarne and appeared in his first film Road to Saint Tropez.

Udo said of his early life: “I liked the attention, so I became an actor.”

He settled later in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, where he lived in a converted mid-century library and pursued his interests in art and architecture.

Rising to cult status through Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, Udo went on to work with directors including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gus Van Sant and Lars von Trier.

His roles ranged from European indies to Hollywood films such as Ace Ventura, Blade and Armageddon, establishing him as a singular, unconventional screen presence.