Rutger Hauer, the Dutch actor who played Roy Batty in Blade Runner, has died aged 75.
Hauer’s agent, Steve Kenis, told the AP the actor died on 19 July at his home in the Netherlands.
The Dutch news agency ANP reported on Wednesday, citing Hauer’s family, that he had died after a short illness.
Born in the Netherlands in 1944, Hauer appeared in a more than 100 Dutch and international movies. He began his career with a string of Dutch film credits in the Seventies.
His role as Batty, the replicant who delivers the iconic “tears in rain” monologue in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, remains his most revered performance on the big screen.
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe,” his character tells Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckar.
“Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
“All those moments will be lost in time, like... tears in rain. Time to die.”
Hauer’s career continued on the big and small screens, earning him a Golden Globe in 1988 for his role in Escape from Sobibor.
His roles included a terrorist in Nighthawks with Sylvester Stallone, a former CEO of Wayne Enterprises in Batman Begins, Cardinal Roark in Sin City, and Etienne of Navarre in the big-budget 1985 fantasy Ladyhawke. Hauer won a supporting-actor Golden Globe award in 1988 for Escape from Sobibor.
His TV credits include roles in Smallville, True Blood, as well as the miniseries A Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens’s classic tale, scheduled to air in December.
Guillermo Del Toro was among those who shared tributes for Hauer after the news of his death broke on Wednesday.
“RIP the great Rutger Hauer: an intense, deep, genuine and magnetic actor that brought truth, power and beauty to his films,” the director wrote. ”My personal favourites: Flesh + Blood, Eureka, The Hitcher, Blade Runner, Ladyhawke and Blind Fury.”
Additional reporting by agencies
