Udo kier gay

Kier is gay, and has been open about his homosexuality his entire life. "No one ever asked about my sexuality. Maybe it was obvious, but it didn't make any difference because all that mattered was the role I was playing. As long as I did a good job on the part, no one cared about my sexuality." [15]. Udo Kier discusses Swan Song, his work across his year-plus career, and how he feels about being labeled a gay icon.

With Swan Song, Todd Stephens deftly explores the generational divide between queer life as it once was and exists today. As one of the first openly gay actors in Hollywood, Kier broke down barriers and paved the way for future generations of LGBTQ+ actors.

With gay actor Udo Kier earning rave reviews for his performance in Swan Song, which opens in theatres this weekend, we think it high time to give him his due. Kier boasts a long and eclectic. Though Kier, also openly gay, has appeared in more than films over the span of five decades (among them: almost all of Lars von Trier's films, as well as Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho"), he's never played a character as proudly gay as Pat Pitsenberger, a legendary Ohio hairstylist known as the "Liberace.

We aim to break boundaries, think outside of binaries and build bridges within our communities and beyond. Stay connected, and tell a friend. Udo Kier as Mr. Pat in Swan Song. Credit: Chris Stephens. At one point in the new film Swan Song , retired hairstylist Pat Pitsenbarger, played exquisitely by Udo Kier, looks out on the Lake Erie waterfront of Sandusky, Ohio, with Eunice Ira Hawkins , an old friend from his days of doing drag.

Eunice points out a young male couple playing with their children and tells Pat they made that possible. Pat, who not only came out but lived their queerness every day. Although increasingly cast as a symbol of European decadence in commercial films like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in and Blade in , Kier has also built a solid reputation in more avant-garde fare, forging strong relationships with ambitious directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Lars von Trier and Gus Van Sant.

He was born in a hospital in Cologne, Germany, in —the same day a bombing raid killed many of the newborns in the maternity ward. As a teen, he hung out in a working-class bar where he befriended the young Rainer Werner Fassbinder. While studying in England, the young, extraordinarily handsome Kier was spotted by gay musical entrepreneur Robert Stigwood. Another of his recording stars, Michael Sarne, wanted to get into filmmaking and cast Kier as a gigolo in the first film for both artists: The short Road to St.

Kier is the first to admit his good looks won him a lot of jobs at first. He was a hot new face, promoted as a beauty on a par with Alain Delon and Terence Stamp. A chance meeting on a plane with Paul Morrissey—who had directed such acclaimed Andy Warhol productions as Chelsea Girls in , Trash in and Heat in —led to his being cast as Baron Frankenstein in Flesh for Frankenstein in and as Count Dracula in its follow-up, Blood for Dracula , in Those films put him on the map in the U.

Hooking up with old friend Fassbinder marked another turning point in his career. That philosophy, and constantly working with the new generation of filmmakers, keeps me young and active. When he made Mark of the Devil in , gay director Michael Armstrong had to cut queer implications from the script. His newest film, Swan Song , gives Kier the chance to work with gay writer-director Todd Stephens, who has been celebrating his queerness on-screen since he wrote the coming-out story Edge of Seventeen in Throughout, he commands the screen with a fully committed, nuanced performance.

He even dons drag as part of a kidnapping plot during the Shrove Tuesday carnival. In his first U. After making the film, Kier moved to the U. As Madame—proprietor of the gay cabaret House of Boys, where two young dancers find love before HIV destroys that corner of gay life—Kier is alternately sympathetic and tough as nails. And he looks terrific in drag.

Udo Keir (Photo: Greg Gorman) But

Kier plays five roles in this dreamlike assemblage of 18 narratives inspired by lost films. This hybrid of science fiction and revolutionary folk drama makes some cogent comments about racism, colonialism and the colonizer mentality. It is available on demand beginning August Frank M. He holds a Ph.