In London – when he was nineteen – he was finally discovered and invited to shoot a short film in France. After that, the newspapers called Kier the “new face of cinema” and wrote that he was “the most beautiful man in the world”. A pretty meteoric career, you could say, but it gets even better. In London, he went to a nightclub frequented by celebrities – “just to have a look”, as he recalled. Kier drank a glass by himself. A waiter came up and said, “Mr. Visconti would like to invite you to have champagne with him and Mr. Nureyev.” Kier had never heard those names before. He told the waiter that the gentleman should come himself. The result is a photo of Udo Kier with Luchino Visconti, Rudolf Nureyev and Helmut Berger, who was also there that evening. Later Udo Kier moved to Rome. In 1973, on a flight to Munich, he met Paul Morrissey, who was making films for Andy Warhol. A few weeks later, he was offered the lead role in Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein. But his really big breakthrough came in 1991 with Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho alongside River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. Of course, Kier didn’t audition there either. Van Sant flew to Berlin to interview him in person. As already mentioned, just one of these stories would be enough for one person. But with Kier, everything is always a bit larger than life.
About thirty years ago, Kier finally moved to the U.S. Not necessarily to become famous, but “to see how things work out”, as he put it. Los Angeles didn’t suit him, nor did the (…)