Acting career
Kier made his film debut aged 21 in Road to Saint Tropez, a 1966 short film by British director Michael Sarne. He made his feature film debut in Schamlos ("Shameless"), a 1968 low-budget West German/Austrian crime film. This was followed by a lead role in the West German-Austrian horror film Mark of the Devil (1970), which proved controversial for its graphic violence, but was a commercial success that increased Kier's mainstream recognition.
Another early starring role as the title character in Paul Morrissey's Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) led to a string of art-house, low-budget, and mainstream horror films. He played Dracula in Morrissey's follow-up, Blood for Dracula (1974), which cemented his status in the horror genre and led to roles in many vampire-themed pictures throughout his career, including Blade (1998), Modern Vampires (1998), Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Dracula 3000 (2004), and BloodRayne (2005). He became famous for his work with cult directors, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Walerian Borowczyk, Gus Van Sant, Christoph Schlingensief, and Dario Argento (in whose classic Suspiria (1977) he was featured). He appeared in almost all of Lars von Trier's films beginning with 1987's Epidemic (with the exceptions of The Idiots, The Boss of it All, Antichrist, and The House That Jack Built).
His most famous Hollywood roles include his appearances as Ron Camp in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Curly in Barb Wire, a NASA flight psychologist in Armageddon, the villainous Lorenzini in The Adventures of Pinocchio and its 1999 sequel The New Adventures of Pinocchio, and Ralfi in the film Johnny Mnemonic. In 1992, Kier appeared in photos in Madonna's controversial book Sex. He also appeared in the music videos for Madonna's songs "Erotica" and "Deeper and Deeper", both taken from Madonna's 1992 album Erotica. Kier also appeared in the music videos for Korn's "Make Me Bad", and for Eve's and Gwen Stefani's "Let Me Blow Ya Mind".
Kier also worked extensively as a voice actor, starring as the psychic Yuri (as well as the voice of the PsiCorps) in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its expansion, Yuri's Revenge. He also voiced the Music Master in Justice League, Herbert Ziegler in The Batman, Ivan Bahn in Metropia, Professor Pericles in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Mister Toad in Beware the Batman, and Dr. Peter Straub in Call of Duty: WWII. He also guest-starred in Axe Cop, Major Lazer, and Golan the Insatiable. He appeared in the trailer for Hideo Kojima's horror video game OD, revealed at The Game Awards. In 2025, Kojima stated on Twitter that Kier did not complete his recording voice and motion capture footage for the game.
Kier posthumously appeared in the fourth season of the AMC series Dark Winds.
