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\n Photo: Kevin Winter\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
Udo Kier, the German actor who worked with everyone from Andy Warhol<\/a> to Gus Van Sant to Madonna<\/a>, has died. He was 81. His partner, artist Delbert McBride, confirmed the news to Variety<\/a> on November 23. Kier worked extensively with Danish director Lars Von Trier. Kier starred in Trier\u2019s Breaking the Waves, Dancer int he Dark, Dogville, Melancholia, and Nymphomaniac: Vol. II.<\/a><\/p>\n In the 70\u2019s Kier starred in two Andy Warhol\/Paul Morrissey films, Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. \u201cI met Paul Morrissey in an airplane and he asked me what I did and I said, \u2018I\u2019m an actor,\u2019\u201d Kier said in the Bay Area Reporter<\/a>. \u201cA few weeks later he offered me the part of Frankenstein in\u00a0Andy Warhol\u2019s Frankenstein.\u201d His work in these film brought him to the art world\u2019s attention. Through the 70\u2019s and 80s, Kier kept working in European film, with parts in such cult films as Suspiria, Docteur Jekyll et les femmes, and several films by his ex-lover Rainer Werner Fassbinder. \u201cWhile in London I picked up a magazine and saw an article on Fassbinder as both a genius and an alcoholic,\u201d Keir told the Reporter. \u201cI said, \u2018That is Rainer from the bar,\u2019 but I hadn\u2019t seen him in four years.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Berlin Film Festival, he met director Gus Van Sant, who got him a SAG card so that he could work in America. Kier played Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix\u2019s benefactor Hans in 1991\u2019s My Own Private Idaho. The following year, Kier played a Warhol-like Svengali in Madonna\u2019s music video for \u201cDeeper and Deeper,\u201d also starring Debi Mazar<\/a> and Sofia Coppola. He also appeared in her Sex book.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n