Rutger Hauer

Acting

Born Jan 23, 1944

From Breukelen, Utrecht, Netherlands

Died Jul 19, 2019

Rutger Oelsen Hauer (January 23, 1944 – July 19, 2019) was a Dutch film actor. He was well known for his roles in Flesh + Blood, Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Sin City, Ladyhawke, The Blood of Heroes and Batman Begins. Hauer was born in Breukelen, Netherlands, to drama teachers Arend and Teunke, and grew up in Amsterdam. Since his parents were very occupied with their careers, he and his three sisters (one older, two younger) were raised mostly by nannies. At the age of 15, Hauer ran off to sea and spent a year scrubbing decks aboard a freighter. Returning home, he worked as an electrician and a carpenter for three years while attending acting classes at night school. He went on to join an experimental troupe, with which he remained for five years before he was cast in the lead role in the very successful 1969 television series Floris, a Dutch Ivanhoe-like medieval action drama. The role made him famous in his native country. Hauer's career changed course when director Paul Verhoeven cast him as the lead in Turkish Delight (1973) (based on the Jan Wolkers book of the same name). The movie found box-office favour abroad as well as at home, and within two years, its star was invited to make his English-language debut in the British film The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Set in South Africa and starring Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, the film was an action melodrama with a focus on apartheid. Hauer's supporting role, however, was barely noticed in Hollywood, and he returned to Dutch films for several years. Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Nighthawks (1981), cast as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named "Wolfgar" (after a character in the Old English poem Beowulf). The following year, he appeared in arguably his most famous and acclaimed role as the eccentric, violent, yet sympathetic replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi thriller, Blade Runner. Hauer was a dedicated environmentalist. He fought for the release of Greenpeace's co-founder, Paul Watson, who was convicted in 1994 for sinking a Norwegian whaling vessel. Hauer has also established an AIDS awareness foundation called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Foundation. He married his second wife, Ineke, in 1985 (they had been together since 1968); and he has one child, actress Aysha Hauer, who was born in 1966 and who made him a grandfather in 1988. In April 2007, he published his autobiography All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners (co-written with Patrick Quinlan) where he discussed many of his movie roles. Proceeds of the book go to Hauer's Starfish Foundation.

Rutger Hauer

Known For

Batman Begins

Blade Runner

Sin City

Iron Mask

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

The Sisters Brothers

24 Hours to Live

Ladyhawke

The Hitcher

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Filmography — Acting

Batman Begins

Blade Runner

Sin City

Iron Mask

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

The Sisters Brothers

24 Hours to Live

Ladyhawke

The Hitcher

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Samson

Goal II: Living the Dream

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Rite

The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power

Fatherland

Blind Fury

Nighthawks

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Unity

Split Second

Surviving the Game

Eureka

Minotaur

Fifty Shades of Erotica

Moonage Daydream

Admiral

Blast

The Poseidon Adventure

The Blood of Heroes

Escape from Sobibor

Flesh + Blood

Dracula III: Legacy

Barbarossa

Warrior Angels

Wedlock

Turkish Delight

Hobo with a Shotgun

Mirror Wars: Reflection One

The 5th Execution

Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner

Dracula 3D

Scorcher

Hostile Waters

The Hunt for Eagle One: Crash Point

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Soldier of Orange

Nostradamus

Beyond Justice

Dead Tone

Bleeders

Happiness Runs

Beyond Valkyrie: Dawn of the 4th Reich

The Prince of Motor City

Crossworlds

Arctic Blue

Blind Side

The Osterman Weekend

Bloodhounds of Broadway

Voyage

Spetters

Omega Doom

The Sonata

Deathline

Mr. Stitch

The Wilby Conspiracy

Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight