Udo Kier, a German actor who played eccentric villains and bloodthirsty monsters over a six-decade career that included parts in films by the directors Gus Van Sant and Lars von Trier, died on Sunday in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 81.
His death was confirmed by his management company, Richard Schwartz Management. No cause of death was given.
Mr. Kier’s trademark roles included Baron Frankenstein, a scientist who wants to create a master race of zombies, in “Flesh for Frankenstein” (1973), and Count Dracula in “Blood for Dracula” (1974).
In the United States, Mr. Kier was known for his role in the Van Sant film “My Own Private Idaho” (1991), in which he played a wealthy young man who engages in prostitution. The film stars Keanu Reeves and is considered a landmark film of the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s.
He also appeared in the 1992 Madonna music videos “Erotica” and “Deeper and Deeper,” songs from her album “Erotica.” Mr. Kier makes a cameo appearance in the first video, caressing the singer, and in the second he delivers an opening line: “Beware! Our idols and demons will pursue us until we learn to let them go!”
Information on Mr. Kier’s survivors was not immediately available.
Udo Kier was born on Oct. 14, 1944 in Cologne, Germany. The hospital was bombed shortly after his birth, but he and his mother, Thekla Kierspe, survived.
Mr. Kier grew up in poverty and worked in a factory until he had enough money to emigrate to England, he told The Guardian in 2002.
By 1966, Mr. Kier had moved to London to study English. Michael Sarne, a British singer and film director, approached him at a coffee shop and cast him for his first role, a male escort in the film “Road to Saint Tropez” (1966).
Mr. Kier then starred in “Mark of the Devil” (1970) as an apprentice witch hunter. The film shocked audiences for its extreme violence and foreshadowed the cynical and nefarious roles like Baron Frankenstein and Count Dracula that would define Mr. Kier’s early career.
Mr. Kier made his foray into Hollywood after meeting Mr. Van Sant at the Berlin Film Festival. That led to “My Own Private Idaho,” which follows two young male prostitutes who travel from Portland, Ore., to Idaho, and then to Rome.
Mr. Kier appeared in more than 200 films and won numerous awards, including the Special Teddy Award at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival for his contributions to queer cinema, and the best actor award at the Dublin International Film Festival for his role in the film “Swan Song” (2022). In the film, Mr. Kier plays a retired hairdresser who travels across an Ohio town to style a dead woman’s hair for her funeral.
In the Brazilian film “The Secret Agent” (2025), which was screened in May at the Cannes Film Festival, he played a Jewish Holocaust survivor in Brazil who is mistaken for a Nazi fugitive.
“I don’t calculate it, but I want to do something in a movie which people will remember,” Mr. Kier said in an interview with Variety in 2024. “I’m not an actor who is happy to get a script and do exactly what is written. That would be boring.”
Alexandra E. Petri contributed reporting.
Jin Yu Young reports on South Korea, the Asia Pacific region and global breaking news from Seoul.
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