He got a horrible start in life when the hospital where he was born got bombed.

From that dark beginning, he would go on to become famous for playing villains, monsters, and creeps — from vampires to Nazis.

Now, the legendary actor Udo Kier has passed away at 81.

Passed away in Palm Springs

Udo Kier, the German actor whose career spanned more than five decades and over 275 film roles across Hollywood and European cinema, has died at 81. Kier passed away on Sunday in a hospital in Palm Springs, California, his partner, Delbert McBride, confirmed to Variety. No cause of death was announced.

Born Udo Kierspe in Cologne, Germany, in 1944, Kier had a dramatic entrance into the world — the hospital where he was born was bombed just hours after his birth, forcing him and his mother to be rescued from the ruins.

He grew up in postwar Germany under challenging circumstances, later describing his childhood as “horrible”.

“My father was already married with three children when I was born, and my mother didn’t know. So we grew up poor. We had no hot water until I was 17,” Udo told The Guardian in 2002.

Working with Andy Warhol

Despite these hardships, Kier discovered a passion for performance at a young age. He moved to London to study English and was discovered in a coffee shop, an encounter that led to the start of his acting career.

In a 2024 interview with Variety, he said, “I liked the attention, so I became an actor.”

His breakout role came in the 1970 horror classic Mark of the Devil, and he quickly became known for playing villains, monsters, and other darkly memorable characters — from vampires to Nazis.