Rutger Hauer is one of the most recognized actors due in large part to his turn in Blade Runner. He died on 19th of July 2019!
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about his life and career!
- His full name is Rutger Oelsen Hauer
- He was born on 23 January 1944
- He died in 19 July 2019
- He was a Dutch actor, writer, and environmentalist
- Hauer’s career began in 1969
- With the title role in the Dutch television series Floris
- And surged with the hugely successful film Turkish Delight in 1973
- After rising to international stardom with the film Soldier of Orange in 1977
- He moved into American films such as Nighthawks and Blade Runner
- Starring in the latter as self-aware android Roy Batty
- His performance in Blade Runner brought him leading roles in films such as The Osterman Weekend, Ladyhawke, Flesh+Blood, The Hitcher, Escape from Sobibor, Blind Fury, The Blood of Heroes, and Wedlock
- Escape from Sobibor earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor
- In the 1990s, Hauer moved into supporting roles in films
- Including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Sin City, Batman Begins, and The Rite
- With occasional starring roles such as Hobo with a Shotgun
- He founded the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association
- This is an AIDS awareness organization
- He was made a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2013
- Rutger Oelsen Hauer was born in Breukelen on 23 January 1944
- He was the son of actors Teunke and Arend Hauer
- They operated an acting school in nearby Amsterdam
- He had one older sister and two younger sisters
- He was born while his home country was under German occupation during World War II
- He later stated in 1981, “I was born in the middle of the war, and I think for that reason I have deep roots in pacifism. Violence frightens me”
- Hauer attended a Rudolf Steiner school, as his parents wanted him to develop his creativity
- At the age of 15, he left school to join the Dutch merchant navy
- He spent a year travelling the world aboard a freighter
- But was unable to become a captain due to his colourblindness
- Returning home, he worked odd jobs while finishing his high school diploma at night
- He then entered the Academy for Theater and Dance in Amsterdam for acting classes
- But soon dropped out to join the Royal Netherlands Army
- He received training as a combat medic
- But left the service after a few months as he opposed the use of deadly weapons
- He subsequently returned to acting school and graduated in 1967
- Hauer was an environmentalist
- Rutger Hauer also established an AIDS awareness organization called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association
- Hauer married his second wife, Ineke ten Cate, in 1985
- They had been together since 1968
- He had one child with his first wife, Heidi Merz
- She is Aysha Hauer
- She was born in 1966
- She is an actress who made him a grandfather in 1987
- In April 2007, he published his autobiography All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners
- The book was co-written with Patrick Quinlan
- In the book he discussed many of his movie roles
- Proceeds from the book go to the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association
- Hauer died on 19 July 2019 at his home in Beetsterzwaag
- Following an unspecified illness
- He was 75
- His most famous line is the one from Blade Runner, “Like tears in the rain”
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