He was working under orders from Andy Warhol And also with Madonnawithout forgetting the most demanding directors of European auteur cinema and even those vampire films that formed the pulse of Hollywood entertainment. Thus, with a career between art and industry, Udo Kier He became a cult actor and an undeniable face equipped with an insight that helped shape many of the most twisted, terrifying and bizarre characters that helped build his fame and perpetuate his talent. His death, which occurred yesterday in Palm Springs and was reported to the press by his partner – the artist Delbert McBride – left his countless fans around the world deprived of the illusion of immortality that surrounded the veteran artist.
Because Udo Kier, who at the time of his death was 81 years old, seemed to have drunk the blood of the vampire that had given him so many successes in B cinema, giving him indefatigable strength and vitality. He never stopped photographing. In fact, at Cannes Film Week, which opens today in Buenos Aires, you can see his farewell to cinema as Hans, the strange, scarred German exile in Secret agentdirected by Kleber Mendonça Filho (screening on Saturday the 29th, at the Gaumont Cinema), the Brazilian director who had previously invited him to Bacurauwhere his character named Michael allowed him to win the Best Villain Award from the Seattle Film Critics Association.
But Udo Kier’s career in cinema dates back to the late sixties, when he began his work in short films and B-movies in French, German and even Italian cinema, where he worked under the supervision of Massimo Franciosa in Season of the sensesalong with Laura Bailey and meet established screenwriter and later father of Italian horror cinema Dario Argento. And it is precisely he who summons him, almost a decade later, to provide the meat to Dr. Frank Mandel from his classic book. sigh.
In the world of horror, one of his first notable works was Count Christian von Meroh Devil’s sign also Inquisition torturestarring Herbert Lom and included to exploit German focused on medieval witch hunts. It was his first contact with the cinema that would know and need him, but the dedication was still missing.
He will arrive with two almost cult titles since its filming due to the names involved in the project, as they are both with Meat for Frankenstein like Blood for DraculaThe presence of visual artist Andy Warhol in the project attracted worldwide attention. Udo Kier starred in both, one as Baron von Frankenstein and the other as the dying Count Dracula who can only drink the blood of virgins. It was a dedication to the powerful showrunner Joe D’Alessandro and also to Udo Kier, for which director Paul Morrissey had to write the script and abandon improvisation as was the original idea of the project.
The films were clearly counter-cultural, having major problems with censorship and an X-rating for the nudity and explicit violence they featured. For Udo Kier, this meant becoming a cult actor and never stopping working, as well as the fact that from then on, skilled European cult directors would make him part of their productions: Hungarian Miklos Janko to Hungarian Rhapsody; Rainer Werner Fassbinder with Third generation, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Lily Marlene and LolaWhere it does not appear in the credits as in the Madonna clip: Deeper and deeper.
In the decade between these works, Kerr intensified his work on television and in horror films, on seminal titles such as My own worldwritten by Gus Van Sant and begins his work with one of his top promoters, who is no less controversial Lars von Trier with epidemic, Europe And the series Medea. It will be just the beginning of a fruitful multi-year creative union that includes titles like Despite all the odds, Dancer in the dark, Dogville, sadness and Lust.
Meanwhile, Kerr is working with directors like Almani Wim Wenders Or Czech Ivan VelaIn parallel, he landed in Hollywood with Michael J Fox In comedy For love or moneyor with Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura. This will be the start that your Dragonetti will arrive at Blade: Vampire HunterHis psychiatrist Armageddon It directed him to other vampire worlds with the indie quality of cinema such as Vampire shadow Or weird cinema like Dracula 3000filmed in South Africa. His strong face makes you forget whether he was playing a leadership role or just looking simple: he has always been the tough Udo Kier.
One of his last works that received the most awards was that of Pat Pitsenbarger Swan songan eccentric gay hairdresser who escapes the nursing home where he was accepted: “I’m gay and German. I suppose I had to play Hitler,” he declared at the time of the film’s premiere. At the Karlovy Vary Festival, where this historian met him, he declared that he could not remember how many villainous roles he had played in his career, but that he lived them without self-censorship.
Udo Kier was born on October 14, 1944 in the German city of Cologne, at the end of World War II, where he had to be rescued from the rubble when the hospital was bombed shortly after his birth.
Raised by his mother, he never knew his father, and lived his childhood and youth as an altar boy and singer. He had moved to Palm Springs, where he died yesterday, in 1991, where he lived with his partner and two of his adored pets: a 103-year-old turtle named Han Solo and his dog, who responded to the name Liza Minnelli. He was the godfather of Agnes, Lars von Trier’s daughter, and he will always be the powerful figure of a hallucinatory, eccentric, sometimes bloodthirsty world, such as the cinematic features that will remain as a memory of his enormous presence and talent.