Udo Kier

Udo Kier has died. The German actor was 81. To have seen him is to remember him, whether it was in one of his over 200 films or in a commercial, you remember those striking grey eyes. But he was also an actor of deft, captivating talent.

In the '70s, he starred in a pair of Gothic horror satires for producer Andy Warhol, Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. It's the former that earned him fame but I'm partial to the latter. Kier plays Dracula as a brooding, tentatively petulant young aristocrat. It's a terrific deadpan performance in a remarkably intelligent and sexy comedy.

He later starred in the experimental French version of Jekyll and Hyde called Docteur Jekyll et les femmes. He covered his Gothic bases.

In his long career, he could leave a mark on a movie with a very brief cameo, as he did in the original Suspiria, while also having major roles in films by some of the greatest avante-garde filmmakers of our time, like Lars von Trier and Werner Herzog. And despite his flawless deadpan, he was ready to join a bizarre comedy, including the infamous Moon Nazi movie, Iron Sky.

Here's a man whose legacy is woven into the fabric of avant-garde cinema history.