Udo Kier, Prolific Actor of Horror and Art House Films, Dies at 81
Udo Kier, the German actor known for his eclectic body of work that included many horror movies and collaborations with filmmakers Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier and Wim Wenders, has died. He was 81.
Kier died Sunday at Eisenhower Health hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, his freind of 60 years, photographer Michael Childers, announced.
The magnetic Kier amassed more than 280 film and TV roles during his career, according too IMDb, as he moved among art house films, features directed by European auteurs and Hollywood blockbusters over seven decades.
He partnered with filmmaker and countryman Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a onetime lover, for the films The Third Generation (1979), Lili Marllen (1981) and Lola (1981) and for the acclaimed 14-part 1980 miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz.
More recently, he appeared in Alexander PayneS Downsizing (2017), starred as a retired hairdresser in Todd Stephens’ Swan Song (2021) and showed up as a Jewish tailor in Kleber Mendonca Filho’s Oscar hopeful The Secret agent (2025).
For Van Sant,who brought him to America and got him into SAG,Kier portrayed the benefactor hans alongside Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho (1991),then reunited with the American director for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) and Don’t worry,He Won’t Get Far on