{"id":224371,"date":"2019-07-25T01:27:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T05:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=224371"},"modified":"2019-07-25T01:27:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T05:27:47","slug":"actor-rutger-hauer-of-blade-runner-fame-has-died-at-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/25\/actor-rutger-hauer-of-blade-runner-fame-has-died-at-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Rutger Hauer, of ‘Blade Runner’ fame, has died at 75"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Rutger Hauer (2018) (Photo By DWDD – DWDD, CC BY 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK — Dutch film actor Rutger Hauer, who specialized in menacing roles, including a memorable turn as a murderous android in \u201cBlade Runner\u201d opposite Harrison Ford, has died. He was 75.<\/p>\n

Hauer’s agent, Steve Kenis, said Wednesday the actor died July 19 at his home in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Hauer’s roles included a terrorist in \u201cNighthawks\u201d with Sylvester Stallone, Cardinal Roark in \u201cSin City\u201d and playing an evil corporate executive in \u201cBatman Begins.\u201d He was in the big-budget 1985 fantasy \u201cLadyhawke,\u201d portrayed a menacing hitchhiker who’s picked up by a murderer in the Mojave Desert in \u201cThe Hitcher\u201d and won a supporting-actor Golden Globe award in 1988 for \u201cEscape from Sobibor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro in a tweet called Hauer \u201can intense, deep, genuine and magnetic actor that brought truth, power and beauty to his films.\u201d Gene Simmons, the KISS bassist who starred opposite Hauer in \u201cWanted: Dead or Alive,\u201d described his former co-star as \u201calways a gentleman, kind and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cBlade Runner,\u201d Hauer played the murderous replicant Roy Batty on a desperate quest to prolong his artificially shortened life in post-apocalyptic, 21st-century Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In his dying, rain-soaked soliloquy, he looked back at his extraordinary existence. \u201cAll those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain. Time to die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s so much fun to playfully roam into the dark side of the soul and tease people,\u201d the actor told The Associated Press in 1987. \u201cIf you try to work on human beings’ light side, that’s harder. What is good is hard. Most people try to be good all their lives. So you have to work harder to make those characters interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauer’s ruggedly handsome face, blue eyes and strong physique drew the attention of American producers in such international successes as \u201cTurkish Delight,\u201d \u201cSpetters\u201d and \u201cSoldier of Orange.\u201d The offers from the United States came as a surprise to Hauer, who faced the same uncertain future experienced by other Dutch film actors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make about 10 films a year, all in Dutch,\u201d he recalled. \u201cYou act for your own community, basically, which is fine. But you can’t live on it. There is also the danger of overexposure; you can’t be too greedy.\u201d After the world recognition for \u201cSoldier of Orange,\u201d a friend suggested Hauer might be able to find work in American films.<\/p>\n

Hauer was born in the Netherlands village of Breukelen. His parents were actors but he had little concentration for school and at 15 ran away as a seaman on a freighter. That didn’t take, nor did a stint in the army, and his parents decided he was destined to follow the family profession. Rutger enrolled in acting school.<\/p>\n

Hauer spent five years with a small troupe bringing theatre to rural Holland. He made his film debut in the saucy \u201cTurkish Delight,\u201d nominated for an Oscar as best foreign language film of 1973.<\/p>\n

Earlier in his career, a Hollywood agent suggested changing his name to something easier for the American public to learn. The actor declined. \u201cIf you’re good enough, people will remember your name,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Ineke ten Cate, and a daughter, actress Aysha Hauer, from a previous marriage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK — Dutch film actor Rutger Hauer, who specialized in menacing roles, including a memorable turn as a murderous …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":224372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-mark-kennedy","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224374,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224371\/revisions\/224374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}