You’ve never seen Udo Kier like this before.
The heavily accented German character actor, who got his start in Andy Warhol’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” and was finally accepted as a member of the Motion Picture Academy this past year, has spent the intervening decades alternating between art films and exploitation movies, appearing as Nazis and nutjobs in everything from “Iron Sky” to “Nymphomaniac.” In Todd Stephens’ “Swan Song,” he plays a flaming small-town Ohio hairdresser who burns brighter than a dying star — which is precisely the way his character, Pat Pitsenbarger, sees himself.Dressed like a cross between Liberace and Quentin Crisp, “Mister Pat” — who was in fact a real person — catered to the socialites of straight-laced Sandusky by day.
In his off hours, he entertained at the local gay bar, the Universal Fruit and Nut Company, so comfortable with his queerness that he inspired Stephens’ own coming-out
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