German actor Udo Kier died at 81 on the morning of Sunday, November 23, 2025. The death was confirmed by his partner, artist Delbert McBride, to Variety magazine. Kier was known in Brazil for his roles in Bacurau and O Agente Secreto, films by director Kleber Mendonça Filho from Pernambuco.
Udo Kier, born in October 1944, built a nearly six-decade career with over 250 roles in film and television. In Brazil, he gained prominence playing Michael in Bacurau (2019), directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. In the film, Kier portrays the leader of a group of armed foreigners invading the village to kill residents, acting as a 'professional hunter.' Bacurau won the Jury Prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, shared with Les Misérables by Ladj Ly, and premiered in theaters in August that year.
Currently featured in O Agente Secreto (2025), also by Mendonça Filho, Kier played a Jew who seeks refuge in Brazil after World War II, alternating between German and Portuguese with an accent. Last year, he appeared in photos on the director's social media, taken in Recife during preparations for the film.
Kier worked with major figures in world cinema, such as Werner Herzog in My Son, What Have Ye Done, Wim Wenders in The End of Violence and Lightning in a Bottle, Dario Argento in Suspiria, and Lars von Trier in several films including Epidemic, Dogville, and Melancholia. He also starred in Andy Warhol productions like Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974), and commercial films like Armageddon by Michael Bay and Blade: The Vampire Hunter.
Open about his homosexuality, Kier collaborated with directors like Gus Van Sant and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with whom he had a romance in his youth. In a 2001 Folha interview, he recalled working with Madonna on the Sex book: 'She watched Boys Don't Cry by Gus Van Sant and basically rented me for the photos. [...] I like decadence, I love everything decadent.' The cause of death was not disclosed by the family.