Iconic actor Udo Kier dead at 81

Kier died Sunday morning, his partner Delbert McBride told Variety.

His long-time friend, photographer Michael Childers, wrote on Facebook that the Blade actor died at Eisenhower Hospital in Palm Springs, California.

A cause of death has not been released.

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“Breaking my heart, a sad goodbye to my great friend Udo Keir… RIP,” Childers wrote.

During his decades-long career, Kier appeared in more than 250 films across Hollywood and European cinema, according to his IMDb page.

He first gained wide attention in the 1970s for starring in Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974), both produced by cultural icon Andy Warhol.

His reputation continued to grow in the European film industry during his work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the late 1970s and early 1980s, on films such as The Stationmaster’s Wife, The Third Generation, and Lili Marleen.

Kier also forged a long-running partnership with Danish director Lars von Trier in the late 80s, starting with Epidemic. He also appeared in the 1991 film Europa before appearing in several episodes of von Trier’s long-running horror-thriller series The Kingdom.

The pair would collaborate again on films including Breaking the Waves, Dogville, and Melancholia.

Kier would eventually meet future two-time Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant at the Berlin Film Festival, crediting him with helping him secure his US work permit and SAG card, according to Variety.

His breakthrough in American film came in 1991, when Van Sant cast him in My Own Private Idaho, in which he appeared in a supporting role alongside River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.

During the 1990s, he landed several memorable supporting roles in Hollywood box office hits such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Armageddon, and Blade.

Kier was featured in Madonna’s 1992 book Sex and later appeared in her videos for Erotica and Deeper and Deeper, both from her Erotica album.

He also appeared in the band Korn’s 2000 music video Make Me Bad.

The veteran actor, born Udo Kierspe, was born in a hospital in Cologne, Germany, on October 14, 1944, as Allied forces were bombing it during World War II, Variety reported.

He left for London when he turned 18, where he would meet Fassbinder in a bar.

When asked why he became an actor, Kier told Variety in a 2024 interview that he “liked the attention.”

Kier received numerous accolades during his film career, including a CineMerit Award, the Artistic Achievement Award, the Dublin Film Critics Award, and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

His final film appearance came in the political thriller The Secret Agent, where he played a Jewish Holocaust survivor in the closing years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Kier is also slated to appear in an upcoming horror video game, OD, produced by Jordan Peele and starring IT actor Sophia Lillis, according to his IMDb page.

This article was originally published on New York Post and is reproduced here with permission