Rutger Hauer

Birthday

1944-01-23

Place of Birth

Breukelen, Utrecht, Netherlands

Biography

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.
Free Trial Channels
Rutger Hauer

Stream
Ben Schwartz
Movies & TV Shows Free

Plus full 80,000+ Prime Video Titles and more!

prime WATCH FREE

30-Day unlimited streaming

All Movies List

Iron Mask

Iron Mask

2019 4.7
Iron Mask

as English Ambassador

2019
Samson

Samson

2018 4.5
Samson

as Manoah

2018
The Sonata

The Sonata

2018 5.2
The Sonata

as Richard Marlowe

2018
Admiral

Admiral

2015 7
Admiral

as Maarten Tromp

2015
The Letters

The Letters

2014 6.2
The Letters

as Benjamin Praagh

2014
Dracula 3D

Dracula 3D

2013 3.6
Dracula 3D

as Abraham van Helsing

2013
The Rite

The Rite

2011 6
The Rite

as Istvan Kovak

2011
The Reverend

The Reverend

2011 4
The Reverend

as The Withstander

2011
Dead Tone

Dead Tone

2007 4.6
Dead Tone

as Det. John Criton

2007
banner AD

Stream over
800,000 titles
with Prime Video

30-day Free Trial, cancel anytime

Try 30-Day Free