{"id":305884,"date":"2025-11-24T16:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305884\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:15:07","slug":"actor-udo-kier-andy-warhol-and-madonna-collaborator-dies-aged-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305884\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Udo Kier, Andy Warhol and Madonna collaborator, dies aged 81"},"content":{"rendered":"

German actor Udo Kier, who was well known for starring in Hollywood films such as My Own Private Idaho as well as collaborations with artists such as Andy Warhol and Madonna<\/a>, has died aged 81.<\/p>\n

The star passed away on Sunday (November 23) in hospital in Palm Springs, his partner Delbert McBride told Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a prolific career spanning nearly 60 years, Kier also collaborated with a variety of directors, including Lars Von Trier, Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog.<\/p>\n

His breakout role came in 1970\u2019s Mark Of The Devil, where he played Count Christian von Meruh, before appearing in Andy Warhol\u2019s Flesh For Frankenstein and Dracula in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The following decade saw his first collaboration with Von Trier in TV series Medea before going on to appear in the director\u2019s films such Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark and Melancholia over the next few decades.<\/p>\n

Van Sant gave Kier his Hollywood breakout role in 1991\u2019s My Own Private Idaho, which co-starred Keanu Reeves<\/a> and River Phoenix, and he later went on to appear in US films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,\u00a0Blade and\u00a0Armageddon.<\/p>\n

He also worked with Madonna on her book Sex and appeared in a number of her music video, as well as those of artists such Korn<\/a> and Eve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kier\u2019s final credit is in The Secret Agent, in which he appears alongside Wagner Moura and is tipped to be a strong contender this awards season.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NME<\/a> in 2022, Kier reflected on his legacy, sharing: \u201cI\u2019ve made around 220 films. And I always say that 100 films are bad, 50 films you can enjoy with some good wine, and 50 films are good.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilms aren\u2019t good because of me as an actor. It\u2019s the lighting, the director, the music, the script. There\u2019s so many elements that all need to come together. That\u2019s why I have more fun in independent films with [filmmakers like] Lars Von Trier and Gus Van Sant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German actor Udo Kier, who was well known for starring in Hollywood films such as My Own Private…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-305884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}