Actor whose eccentric presence was in demand for both arthouse and Hollywood films
Flesh for Frankenstein, the 1973 erotic horror film that brought the actor Udo Kier an early taste of fame, was presented in 3D, the better to make its ingeniously disgusting effects truly pop. The gory highlight showed Kier, as Baron Frankenstein, being run through with a spear, his liver wobbling jauntily in the viewer’s face.
No such gimmicks were needed to render Kier vividly three-dimensional over the course of a career that spanned more than half a century, and during which he worked with everyone from Lars von Trier and Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Pamela Anderson and Madonna.
He combined the wounded menace of Peter Lorre, the contemptuous mania of Klaus Kinski and the sexual magnetism of Terence Stamp. Much of his power was distilled in that penetrating gaze. His were the sort of eyes that not only followed you around the room but pursued you out of the cinema, down the street, all the way home and into your dreams – or your nightmares.
Kier, who has died aged 81, moved easily between malevolence and camp flippancy. Blending into the background, though, was not within his powers. “I want to act in a way that people remember,” he said. “Otherwise, what’s the point?” In 2015, Interview magazine called him “the ultimate cult film actor of his generation”.
