Palm Springs – Eyes blink, closed forever. Ice-cold eyes like a shark. The rocky face is like a mountain canyon. Diva-like lewd body language. He played Hitler and Dracula. But he was always himself.
Cult star Udo Kier (“Armageddon”, “Hunters”, “Blade”, “Lili Marleen”, “The Story of O” & 270 films), a German Hollywood legend, emerges from the rubble of a clinic in Cologne bombed during the war. Her mother rescued her baby from the wreckage of World War II on October 14, 1944.
Udo Kier (then 59 years old) almost shot the film “Lulu and Jimi” in Cologne on the Rhine
Kier is an altar boy and Ford factory worker
The buried child becomes a star beside him Madonna (67) and Andy Warhol (†58), Arnold Schwarzenegger (78) and Keanu Reeves (61), Bruce Willis (70) and Matt Damon (55), Christoph Waltz (69) and Until Schweiger (61).
Why? He was an altar boy and Ford factory worker. He was gay and liked to imitate Caterina Valente (†93). When she was 16, she met Rainer Werner Fassbinder (†37) in a taxi driver’s bar. “I love attention. That’s why I became an actor.” He went to London when he was 18 years old. Film genius Luchino Visconti (†69, “The Leopard”) discovered him in a nightclub. Champagne was provided – with ballet icon Rudolf Nureyev (†54): “What can I say? I was a very photogenic child!”
1966: Udo Kier (then 21 years old) skillfully poses for the camera
He was one of the most beautiful men of his time. He made a lot of Euro trash films. On the Rome-Munich flight he happened to be sitting next to director Paul Morrissey (†86): “I’m making a film for Andy Warhol!” Kier wrote his phone number on his passport and tore the last page. Kier played “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” (produced by Carlo Ponti, †94, husband of Sophia Loren, 91). The breakthrough!
On his 80th birthday, he sighed: “I made more than 200 films. 100 were bad. 50 you could watch with a glass of wine. But 50 were really good!” His home in the US became a desert oasis in Palm Springs. A place to escape from Hollywood. Frank Sinatra (†82), Marilyn Monroe (†36) and Cary Grant (†82) lived here in the past.
1974: Udo Kier (then 29) in Andy Warhol’s “Dracula”
Udo Kier: “I want to be a gardener.”
He has transformed an old public library into a living art museum. There is a sketch by David Hockney (88), a leather jacket by Keith Haring (†31), something by Jeff Koons (70) and a portrait of Kier by cult photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (†42). The dog “Liza Minelli” and the giant tortoise “Hans” are asleep in the garden: “When I have nothing to do, I like to water one of my 100 palm trees. I talk to the plants. I want to be a gardener.” Go barefoot in Gucci sandals.
Here he found harmony with his black colleague, artist Delbert McBride. He also owns a home in Los Angeles and a ranch. There is a plastic horse named Max von Sydow here. He’s fit. He worked a lot: “I never had much money. But I always saved.” At 80, he is still starring in Brazil in “The Secret Agent” – a possible Oscar candidate. In Syria (!) he shot for the horror video game “OD”. He played his first major role at age 77: “Swan Song” with co-star Linda Evans (83, “Denver Clan”). “A boy’s dream has come true.” Story: An old hairdresser styles a beautiful dead woman (on Amazon Prime Video).
Udo Kier at 77 in “Swan Song”: He played the lead role in one of his last projects
The last time I saw him was on the Los Angeles airport line before the Oscars. He complained about the waiting time with a smile: “I’m a star! Why do I have to wait here for an hour? Nobody knows me?” He turned the security checkpoint into a stage. She only brought a handbag. “Eternally curious wanderer through many strange worlds”. Those sparkling, alert eyes! This vibrating physical energy.
Her vibrant aura was infectious. His face was like a marble statue winking at us: “I consider myself a lucky man!” Global citizen from Kölle. Unique. Kier Kingdom.
