Rutger Hauer
Acting
Rutger Oelsen Hauer (23 January 1944 - 19 July 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.
Media of
Rutger Hauer
Photos (21)
Filmography of
Rutger Hauer
John The Constant
Himself (archive footage)
... 2021
Ray
... 2020
English Ambassador
... 2019
Richard Marlowe
... 2018
The Commodore
... 2018
Stranger
... 2018
Manoah
... 2018
Carl Rungius
... 2017
Professor Moonlight
... 2017
Frank
... 2017
President of the World State Federation
... 2017
Dolph
... 2017
Self (archive footage)
... 2017
... 2016
Oskar Halminski
... 2016
Himself
... 2016
Benjamin Praagh
... 2015
... 2015
Himself - Narrator (voice)
... 2015
Dr. Richards
... 2015
... 2015
... 2015
Maarten Tromp
... 2015
King Zakour
... 2015
Padre di Francesco
... 2014
Colonel Asimov
... 2014
Maciste
... 2013
Steve Batier
... 2013
Abraham van Helsing
... 2012
Freek van Dyk
... 2012
The Withstander
... 2012
Alfred Heineken
... 2011
... 2011
... 2011
Hobo
... 2011
Khant
... 2011
Peter Bruegel
... 2011
Niemeyer
... 2011
Abraham Jonker
... 2011
Istvan Kovak
... 2011
Insley
... 2010
Jean-Luc
... 2010
Federico Barbarossa
... 2009
... 2009
Old Frank
... 2008
Dr. Richard Nagel
... 2008
... 2007
Peter Rossen
... 2007
Maxwell McAllister
... 2007
Det. John Criton
... 2007
Rudi van der Merwe
... 2007
Gen. Frank Lewis
... 2006
Sanford Pollard
... 2006
Cyrnan
... 2006
Gen. Frank Lewis
... 2006
Bishop August Schmidt
... 2005
... 2005
Dracula
... 2005
William Earle
... 2005
Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark
... 2005
Van Beuningen
... 2004
... 2004
... 2002
Grekkor
... 2002
Paul Marcinkus
... 2002
US President Nelson
... 2002
Ezekial
... 2001
Copilot MacIntosh
... 2001
... 2001
Keith Miller
... 2001
Dr. Sam Dennis Charney
... 2000
Gene Reardon
... 2000
Himself
... 2000
David Marx
... 1999
Count Albrecht, the Squire
... 1999
Capitaine John 'Doc' Holiday
... 1999
Palmer
... 1998
Patrick Collins
... 1997
Cap. Britanov
... 1997
John Wade
... 1997
Dr. Marlowe
... 1997
John Thornton
... 1997
Leo
... 1997
Curtiz
... 1997
A.T.
... 1996
Chaplan
... 1996
... 1996
Armond Crille
... 1996
Omega Doom
... 1996
Doctor Rue Wakeman
... 1995
SS-Sturmbannführer Xavier March
... 1994
Rueben Bean
... 1994
Fred Noonan
... 1994
Thomas Burns
... 1994
The Mystic Monk
... 1994
Dr. Lem
... 1994
Morgan Norvell
... 1993
Jake Shell
... 1993
Ben Corbett
... 1993
Himself
... 1993
Tom Burton
... 1992
Lothos
... 1992
Harley Stone
... 1992
Frank Warren
... 1991
Tom Burton
... 1991
Ben Jordan
... 1991
The Brain
... 1989
Sallow
... 1989
John Knott
... 1989
Sheriff Emil Abel
... 1989
Nick Parker
... 1989
Andreas Kartak
... 1988
Alexander 'Sasha' Pechersky
... 1987
Nick Randall
... 1987
John Ryder
... 1986
Martin
... 1985
Captain Etienne Navarre
... 1985
Wulfgar (archive footage) (uncredited)
... 1984
Jim Malden
... 1984
John Tanner
... 1983
Claude Maillot Van Horn
... 1983
Roy Batty
... 1982
Albert Speer
... 1982
Wulfgar
... 1981
Etienne de Balsan
... 1981
Gerrit Witkamp
... 1980
Rinus de Gier
... 1979
... 1979
Ryder
... 1979
Johan Nagel
... 1978
August Schultz
... 1978
Erik Lanshof
... 1977
... 1976
Duclari
... 1976
... 1975
Cris
... 1975
Hugo
... 1975
Blane Van Niekirk
... 1975
Rick
... 1974
Eric Vonk
... 1973
Diego