His partner, artist Delbert McBride, confirmed that Udo Kier died on Sunday, November 23, 2025, at a hospital in Palm Springs, California, concluding a life dedicated to cinema.
Known for his striking green eyes, singular screen presence, and unique ability to portray everyone from sinister villains to heartbreakingly gentle eccentrics, Kier leaves behind a monumental legacy that stretches across over 220 film credits and multiple cinematic movements.
Career and Legacy
Udo Kier’s career was fundamentally shaped by his role as a muse for cinematic visionaries, displaying a deep, sustained commitment to unconventional projects. This fearlessness led him to collaborate repeatedly with some of the most influential and boundary-pushing auteurs in film history. Notably, he was a fixture in the New German Cinema, starring in several films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, where he skillfully blended intense theatricality with raw emotional realism.
His most extensive partnership was with the Danish director Lars von Trier, resulting in over a dozen collaborations, including seminal works such as Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dogville, and the haunting Melancholia. Additionally, Kier achieved lasting cult status in the 1970s for his unforgettable, often campy, leading roles in the Warhol-produced horror films, Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula (both directed by Paul Morrissey), which solidified his reputation as an icon of midnight movie fare.{
From Arthouse to Blockbuster
While a foundational fixture in European arthouse cinema, Kier was equally recognized in Hollywood blockbusters and genre fare. He possessed the unique quality of elevating any scene with his mere presence. American audiences will remember him for memorable turns in films like Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991), Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1998), and a chilling supporting role in Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac (2013).
In later years, he earned renewed critical praise for his final leading role in Swan Song (2021), a poignant drama that saw him portray a retired hairdresser on a melancholic journey, proving his capacity for vulnerability and heart.
Though the cause of death has not been publicly disclosed, his tireless work ethic and commitment to the offbeat cemented his status as a true cinematic icon who fiercely championed unconventional art.