The Villain Who Survived the Ruins How Udo Kier Defied Darkness From Birth to Become an Icon
Udo Kier entered the world through fire. Born in Cologne in 1944, just hours before the hospital was bombed, he and his mother were pulled from the rubble—an omen, perhaps, of the dark and powerful screen presence he would one day command. From a childhood marked by poverty, absence, and cold-water mornings until age seventeen,…