'Blade Runner' actor Rutger Hauer dies aged 75 following short illness
Actor Rutger Hauer, the Dutchman who went on to work on the 1982 film 'Blade Runner' as Roy Batty died July 19 in the Netherlands after suffering from a short illness. He was 75 years old. The news of the actor's death was confirmed by his agent Steve Kenis and a funeral was held on Wednesday.
The actor's performance in Ridley Scott's sci-fi 'Blade Runner' opposite Harrison Ford is well-known today and has a cult following, however, the film itself flopped when it released in 1982. He played the role of a gang leader in the film - Roy Batty.
His most recent roles in films were in 2005 when he appeared in 'Sin City' as Cardinal Roark and in Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' as a corporate schemer who is found to be running the Wayne Corp by Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale).
After this, the actor worked on TV series including 'True Blood' and the 2015 musical 'Galavant'. He played the fairy grandfather to Sookie Stackhouse in the former and portrayed the role of one Kingsley in the latter.
Hauer's first role was in the '60s when the actor worked on a television show - Paul Verhoeven’s 'Floris' - in the Netherlands. It took the actor a decade to a become a star and in 1973 he worked opposite Monique van de Ven in Verhoeven’s 'Turkish Delight', which won Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars that year.
He continued to work with Verhoeven on three other projects, all of which became popular as art house films in the U.S. His first role in Hollywood was that of a terrorist in Sylvester Stallone's 1981 movie 'Nighthawks'.
In 1985 and 1986, the actor stuck to doing action films that were big on budget and was seen in 'Ladyhawke', 'Flesh & Blood', and 'The Hitcher'. He played the villain in all these movies. Hauer's most celebrated work after 'Blade Runner' is this Italian production titled 'The Legend of the Holy Drinker' in which he played a homeless drunk. The 1988 film was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
According to a report in Variety, the actor is survived by his wife of 50 years, Ineke ten Cate, and his daughter from his marriage to Heidi Merz, actress Aysha Hauer.