Udo Kier, Magnetic Queer Character Actor, Dies at 81
He worked with some of film's greatest auteurs across 200+ projects
November 24, 2025
Udo Kier, the German character actor who served sex and foreboding via his alarming eyes, died in Palm Springs at 81 on November 23.
His partner, artist Delbert McBride, confirmed the sudden passing. Just two months ago, Kier looked as striking and stylish as ever at Milan Fashion Week.
Kier was born October 14, 1944, in Cologne. Udo Kierspe came into the world in a hospital that was immediately bombed by Allied forces.
By 22, he spoke English and had been cast in his first film, Road to Saint Tropez (1966).
What put him on the map were his sexually ambiguous (he was gay, openly, always) performances in Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Andy Warhol’s Dracula (1974), both by filmmaker Paul Morrissey.
A mainstay of the horror genre, he had an arresting, uncredited part in Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) and worked extensively with Lars von Trier.
Among his memorable films: Story of O (1975), Lili Marleen (1981), Moscow on the Hudson (1984), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Breaking the Waves (1996), Armageddon (1998), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Dogville (2003) and Bacurau (2019).
Kier was proud of his collaborations with Madonna (“she was very well-sorted … down there”) posing in her 1992 Sex book and hamming it up in her “Deeper and Deeper” music video from the same year.
In 2021, he gave a rare lead performance in Swan Song, a film by Todd Stephens in which he played an aged hairstylist determined to get to his former client’s (Linda Evans) funeral to do her ‘do one last time.
It was a career-topper if ever there was one, but he continued working tirelessly, including playing Hitler on Hunters (2023) and a role in this year’s The Secret Agent, Brazil’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar.
In 2023, I was fortunate enough to meet him at a screening of A E I O U: A Quick Alphabet of Love (2022). He gamely posed for photos and signed autographs, and was thrilled to grant a fun Q&A.
Also memorable was a tandem screening of The Strange Case of Udo Kier. The short film edits together Kier’s more than 50 — sometimes lurid — death scenes across his 200+ films.
Kier fucking loved it.⚡️