AMSTERDAM • Actor Rutger Hauer, who became a global cult icon for his role as a scary yet thoughtprovoking humanoid android in 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, has died at age 75.
His non-profit HIV/Aids charity, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, said he died last Friday after a short illness in his Dutch home.
Dutch media said he was buried at a private ceremony as the film world paid tribute.
Blade Runner, set in a dystopian Los Angeles of 2019 and directed by Ridley Scott, catapulted the tall, blonde Dutch actor with piercing blue eyes to international stardom.
His last haunting monologue in the movie could perhaps stand as his obituary: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
Born in 1944 to Dutch parents who were actors and ran an acting school, Hauer showed an early rebellious streak. At 15, he ran away to sea, travelling the world on a Dutch merchant navy freighter.
After returning to the Netherlands, he took up acting.
He came to the attention of American audiences when he teamed up with Sylvester Stallone in the 1981 thriller film Nighthawks.
The following year, he appeared in Blade Runner and never looked back.
For half a century, Hauer was prolific, working in more than 100 films, though some critics said he appeared in more than his fair share of bad movies.
He was a noted campaigner for HIV/Aids research, setting up his own association in 2000, in addition to his work as an environmentalist.
Hauer won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in 1988 for his role in a British made-fortelevision World War II drama called Escape From Sobibor (1987).
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
