Throwback Thursday Remembers Gay Actor Udo Kier Who Died This Week

November 27, 2025
HANK ORSO

I probably first became aware of Udo Kier when I was a teenager in New Orleans, and some friends and I went to a showing of "Andy Warhol's Flesh For Frankenstein (in 3-D!) in which he delivered with absolute straight-faced sincerity the line "To experience life, you must fuck death in the gall bladder. At that point, he drives his hand sensually into the torso of a body and rips out its innards, which spill onto the floor, at the camera, dangling in the audience's face in 3-D! I was hooked.

Kier, born in Cologne, Germany, in 1944, died this past Sunday at the age of 81. To call him an "iconic cult" actor is an understatement. He has appeared in over 200 roles across a wide array of genres and film styles, from starring roles to appearances in music videos, working for arthouse indie directors and in blockbuster mainstream trash. His was a face that made you say "Oh yeah, I've seen that guy," but you may have no idea what his pedigree in film is, much less his name. His death was confirmed to Variety by his partner, Delbert McBride.

Basically openly gay throughout his career, which included modeling as a teenager, he first became a camp horror star in two back-to-back Warhol-produced films, Flesh For Frankenstein and Blood For Dacula. And by "back to back", I mean that they ended filming for Frankenstein before lunch, broke for a meal, and started Dracula after lunch!

Those camp classics made him a star, and he worked consistently through Europe, often with writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder on films like The Stationmaster’s Wife, The Third Generation and Lili Marleen. Then gay American director Gus Van Sant brought him to America with his role opposite Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix in the Henry IV-inspired My Own Private Idaho.

This was followed by the beginning of his long-time collaboration with one of the most troubling and provocative directors of our time, Lars von Trier. He would appear in several of von Trier's films, including Dogville starring Nicole Kidman, Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst and Phillip Seymore Hoffman, and in the gut-wrenchingly emotional musical Dancer In the Dark starring Bjök. To each of his roles, he brought his smirk of camp along with his piercing eyes and beguiling good looks. He always came off like a slightly deranged, impish lesser god. You never knew if you wanted him to fuck you or drag you to a lower realm.

No one ever asked. Maybe it was obvious, but it didn’t make any difference because all that mattered was the role I was playing. As long as I did a good job on the part, no one cared about my sexuality.

After half a career creating sexually suggestive roles filled with power, malice, and a sly smirk, it is no wonder he would wind up in some Madonna projects. He appeared in her Sex book in 1992, and in her music videos for "Erotica" and "Deeper and Deeper."

What's interesting about this second video is that one of the performers, the young man with the headband, is a dead ringer for Joe Dellasandro, who was another of Andy Warhol's actors/models. (That's Dellsandro's naked torso on the cover of your copy of The Smiths' debut album.)

He paid the bills with roles in blockbuster films as well, such as Armageddon, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Blade. But it's in small indie films where his fans really find his true outré nature abides. A few years ago, he starred in Swan Song, and sweet, funny, poignant indie comedy costarring Jennifer Coolidge and Linda (motherfuckin'!) Evans of Dynasty fame. He's a formerly flamboyant hairdresser and drag queen who, in his final years, is called out of retirement to do the hair of a former acquaintance, now deceased. It's the kind of role Kier was made for: fierce camp, and fierce emotions.