Actor Rutger Hauer dies at 75
(CNN) - Rutger Hauer, a dashing Dutch actor who battled Harrison Ford in the science-fiction classic "Blade Runner" and excelled in bad-guy roles, died July 19 after a short illness, his longtime agent Steve Kenis told CNN. An AIDS charity with which the actor was involved, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Foundation, said he died peacefully at his Dutch home. Of working with director Ridley Scott, the actor later said, " I understood, on a very strong level, what he wanted, and by instinct I gave it to him." (Verhoeven later considered him for the lead in the movie "RoboCop," which ultimately went to Peter Weller.) On Twitter, director Guillermo del Toro called Hauer "an intense, deep, genuine and magnetic actor that brought truth, power and beauty to his films."
Actor Rutger Hauer, of 'Blade Runner' fame, has died at 75
1944: Actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his roles in movies such as "Nighthawks," "Blade Runner," "Ladyhawke" and "The Hitcher," is born in Breukelen, Utrecht, Netherlands. NEW YORK - Dutch film actor Rutger Hauer, who specialized in menacing roles, including a memorable turn as a murderous android in "Blade Runner" opposite Harrison Ford, has died. Hauer's agent, Steve Kenis, says the actor died July 19 at his home in the Netherlands. Hauer's roles included a terrorist in "Nighthawks" with Sylvester Stallone, a former CEO of Wayne Enterprises in "Batman Begins," and he was in the big-budget 1985 fantasy "Ladyhawke." In "Blade Runner," he played the murderous replicant Roy Batty on a desperate quest to prolong his artificially shortened life in post-apocalyptic, 21st-century Los Angeles.