Rutger Hauer
Acting
- Born:
- 1944-01-23
- Died:
- 2019-07-19
- Place of birth:
- Breukelen, Utrecht, Netherlands
Biography
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.
Known For
Filmography
Roel Oostra – Theaterman in hart en nieren
Blind Channel: After Dark Side
Albert Speer und der Traum von Hollywood
Break
Iron Mask
The Sonata
The Sisters Brothers
Corbin Nash
Samson
Drawing Home
The Broken Key
24 Hours to Live
Porters
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Gangsterdam
Mata Hari
Genderness
Channel Zero
Beyond Valkyrie: Dawn of the 4th Reich
WAX: We Are the X
The Worlds of Philip K. Dick
The Last Kingdom
Behind the White Glasses
Unity
Clones
Fifty Shades of Erotica
Admiral
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power
Galavant
Francesco
Francesco
2047: Sights of Death
The Real History of Science Fiction
The Letters
The Future
Real Playing Game
Flight of the Storks
Dracula 3D
Michelangelo: The Heart and the Stone
Metal Hurlant Chronicles
Agent Ranjid Saves the World
The Heineken Kidnapping
The Cardboard Village
Portable Life
The Reverend
More Blood, More Heart: The Making of Hobo with a Shotgun
Hobo with a Shotgun
The 5th Execution
The Mill and the Cross
All for One
Black Butterflies
The Rite
Spoon
Requiem 2019
Happiness Runs
Life's a Beach
Barbarossa
3
Dazzle
The Rhapsody
Bride Flight
True Blood
The Prince of Motor City
Magic Flute Diaries
Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner
Fashion Forward: Wardrobe and Styling
Starting Over
Moving McAllister
Zomer Draait Door, De
Dead Tone
Goal II: Living the Dream
Blond, Blue Eyes
The Hunt for Eagle One: Crash Point
Mentor
Minotaur
The Hunt for Eagle One
The Poseidon Adventure
De Wereld Draait Door
Mirror Wars: Reflection One
Dracula III: Legacy
Batman Begins
Sin City
Floris
Never Enough
Salem's Lot
Tempesta
Alpha to Omega: Exposing 'The Osterman Weekend'
The Hitcher: How Do These Movies Get Made?
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Warrior Angels
Scorcher
V Graham Norton
The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair
Flying Virus
The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
Smallville
Alias
Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal
The Room
Lying in Wait
Wilder
On the Edge of 'Blade Runner'
The 10th Kingdom
Partners in Crime
New World Disorder
Simon Magus
Bone Daddy
Merlin
Tactical Assault
The Ruby Ring
Hostile Waters
Deathline
Eating Pattern
Bleeders
The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon
Lexx
Blast
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Omega Doom
Mariette in Ecstasy
Precious Find
Crossworlds
Paul Verhoeven: From Holland to Hollywood
Mr. Stitch
Fatherland
The Beans of Egypt, Maine
Nostradamus
Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight
Surviving the Game
Blood of the Innocent
Voyage
Blind Side
Arctic Blue
The Revenge of the Dead Indians
Beyond Justice
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Past Midnight
Split Second
Wedlock
The Law of the Desert
Bloodhounds of Broadway
The Blood of Heroes
On a Moonlit Night
The Edge
Blind Fury
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
Escape from Sobibor
The Best of Max Headroom
Wanted: Dead or Alive
The Hitcher
Flesh + Blood
The Max Headroom Show
Ladyhawke
A Breed Apart
The Osterman Weekend
Eureka
Blade Runner
Inside the Third Reich
American Playhouse
Chanel Solitaire
Nighthawks
Spetters
Duel In De Diepte
Fatal Error
Woman Between Wolf and Dog
Es begann bei Tiffany
For Queen and Country
Mysteries
Pastorale 1943
Heilige Jeanne
Soldier of Orange
Naked and Lustful
Max Havelaar: or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company
Cyrano de Bergerac
Cancer Rising
Floris von Rosemund
Cold Blood
Katie Tippel
The Wilby Conspiracy
Dandelions
Turkish Delight
Rond Floris
Floris
Omnibus
Isip the Warrior
Tonight at Noon
Starfish Tango