Rutger Hauer

Rutger Hauer
Rutger Hauer at the Odessa International Film Festival, 2010
Born	Rutger Oelsen Hauer (1944-01-23) 23 January 1944 Breukelen, Netherlands
Occupation	Actor, writer, environmentalist
Years active	1969–present
Board member of	AIDS Awareness Organization Rutger Hauer Starfish Association
Spouse(s)	Ineke (1985–present)
Golden Globe Awards
Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film 1987 Escape from Sobibor
Website
rutgerhauer.org

Rutger Oelsen Hauer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈrʏtxər ˈulsə(n) ˈɦɔuər]; born 23 January 1944) is a Dutch actor, writer, and environmentalist. His career began in 1969 with the title role in the popular Dutch television series Floris. His film credits include Flesh+Blood, Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Escape from Sobibor (for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor), Nighthawks, Wedlock, Sin City, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Ladyhawke, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Osterman Weekend, The Blood of Heroes, Batman Begins, Hobo with a Shotgun, and The Rite. Hauer also founded an AIDS awareness organization, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association.

Early life

Hauer was born in Breukelen in the Netherlands, the son of drama teachers Arend and Teunke. Hauer grew up in Amsterdam. Since his parents were very occupied with their careers, he and his three sisters (one older, two younger) were brought up mostly by nannies. At the age of 15, Hauer ran off to sea and spent a year scrubbing decks aboard a freighter. Returning home, he worked as an electrician and a joiner for three years while attending acting classes at night school.

Career

Rutger Hauer as Floris, 1969

Hauer joined an experimental troupe, with which he remained for five years before Paul Verhoeven cast him in the lead role of the successful 1969 television series Floris, a Dutch medieval action drama. The role made him famous in his native country, and Hauer reprised his role for the 1975 German remake Floris von Rosemund. Hauer's career changed course when Verhoeven cast him in Turkish Delight (1973). The movie found box-office favour abroad as well as at home, and within two years, Hauer was invited to make his English-language debut in the British film The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Set in South Africa, the film was an action-drama with a focus on apartheid. Hauer's supporting role, however, was barely noticed in Hollywood, and he returned to Dutch films for several years. During this period, he made Katie Tippel (1975) and worked again with Verhoeven on Soldier of Orange (1977), and Spetters (1980). These two films paired Hauer with fellow Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbé.

Rutger Hauer in Escape from Sobibor, 1987

Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks (1981) as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named Wulfgar. The following year, he appeared in arguably his most famous and acclaimed role as the eccentric and violent but sympathetic anti-hero Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's 1982 science fiction thriller Blade Runner, in which role he improvised the famous tears in rain soliloquy. Hauer went on to play the adventurer courting Theresa Russell in Eureka (1983), the investigative reporter opposite John Hurt in The Osterman Weekend (1983), the hardened Landsknecht mercenary Martin in Flesh & Blood (1985), and the knight paired with Michelle Pfeiffer in Ladyhawke (1985).

He continued to make an impression on audiences in The Hitcher (1986), in which he played a mysterious hitchhiker intent on murdering a lone motorist and anyone else in his way. At the height of Hauer's fame, he was set to be cast as RoboCop though the role went to Peter Weller. That same year, Hauer starred as Nick Randall in Wanted: Dead or Alive as the descendant of the character played by Steve McQueen in the television series of the same name. In The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1989), Hauer showed a more soulful side. Phillip Noyce also attempted to capitalize, with far less success, on Hauer's spiritual qualities in the martial arts action adventure Blind Fury (1989). Hauer returned to science fiction with The Blood of Heroes (1990), in which he played a former champion in a post-apocalyptic world.

Hauer at the Odessa International Film Festival, 2010

By the 1990s, Hauer was well known for his humorous Guinness commercials as well as his screen roles, which had increasingly involved low-budget films such as Split Second, Omega Doom, and New World Disorder. He also appeared in the Kylie Minogue music video "On a Night Like This". In the late 1980s and 1990s, as well as in 2000, Hauer acted in several British and American television productions, including Inside the Third Reich, Escape from Sobibor (for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor), Fatherland, Hostile Waters, Merlin, The 10th Kingdom, Smallville, Alias, and Salem's Lot. In 1999, Hauer was awarded the Dutch “Best Actor of the Century Rembrandt Award”.

Hauer played an assassin in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2003), a villainous cardinal with influential power in Sin City (2005) and a devious corporate executive running Wayne Enterprises in Batman Begins (2005). He also hosted the British reality television documentary Shock Treatment in 2005. He starred in Goal! 2: Living the Dream... as Real Madrid coach Rudi Van Der Merwe. In 2007 he recorded the voice-overs for the UK advertising campaign for Lurpak butter. In 2009, his role in avant-garde filmmaker Cyrus Frisch's Dazzle, received positive reviews. The film was praised in Dutch press as "the most relevant Dutch film of the year". The same year, Hauer starred in the title role of Barbarossa, an Italian film directed by Renzo Martinelli. In April 2010, he was cast in the live action adaptation of the short and fictitious Grindhouse trailer Hobo With a Shotgun (2011). In March 2011, it was announced that Hauer would play vampire hunter Van Helsing in legendary horror director Dario Argento's Dracula 3D. Will also be starring as "Macklyn" in season 6 of "True Blood".

Personal life

Hauer is a dedicated environmentalist. He fought for the release of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society leader, Paul Watson, who was convicted in 1994 for sinking a Norwegian whaling vessel. Hauer has also established an AIDS awareness organization called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association. Hauer married his second wife, Ineke, in 1985 (they had been together since 1968); and he has one child, actress Aysha Hauer, who was born in 1966 and who made him a grandfather in 1987. His grandson Leandro Maeder is a fashion model. In April 2007, he published his autobiography All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners (co-written with Patrick Quinlan), where he discusses many of his movie roles. Proceeds of the book go to Hauer's Starfish Association.

Filmography

Main article: Rutger Hauer filmography

• Turkish Delight (1973)
• The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
• Katie Tippel (1975)
• Soldier of Orange (1979)
• Spetters (1980)
• Nighthawks (1981)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• The Osterman Weekend (1983)
• Eureka (1984)
• A Breed Apart (1984)
• Terror in the Aisles (1984)
• Ladyhawke (1985)
• Flesh + Blood (1985)
• The Hitcher (1986)
• Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987)
• Escape from Sobibor (1987) (TV)
• Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)           
• Blind Fury (1989)
• Salute of the Jugger (1989)
• Past Midnight (1991)
• Wedlock (1991)
• Split Second (1992)
• Beyond Justice (1992)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
• Blind Side (1993)
• Voyage (1993)
• Surviving the Game (1994)
• Fatherland (1994)
• Mr. Stitch (1995)
• The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon (1997)
• Deathline (Redline) (1997)
• Omega Doom (1997)
• Lexx (1997)      
• Crossworlds (1997) (Brazil)
• Bleeders (1997)
• Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)
• Tactical Assault (1998)
• Merlin (1998)
• Simon Magus (1999)
• Lying in Wait (2000)
• The 10th Kingdom (2000) (TV)
• The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (2002)
• Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
• Scorcher (2002)
• Salem's Lot (2004)
• Sin City (2005)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• Dracula III: Legacy (2005)
• The Poseidon Adventure (2005)
• 7eventy 5ive (2006)
• The Hunt for Eagle One (2006)
• Minotaur (2006)
• Mentor (2006)
• Moving McAllister (2007)
• Goal! 2: Living the Dream... (2007)
• Magic Flute Diaries (2008)
• Brideflight (2008)
• Barbarossa (2009)
• The Mill and the Cross (2010)
• Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
• Black Butterflies (2011)
• Alle for en (2011)
• The Rite (2011)
• De Heineken Ontvoering (2011)
• The Cardboard Village (2011)
• Dracula 3D (2012)

Discography

• Lost in the New Real by Arjen Anthony Lucassen (2012) – Narrator/Voight Kampff, lyrics

External links

• Rutger Hauer
• Rutger Hauer at the Internet Movie Database
• Rutger Hauer at AllRovi
• Rutger Hauer at Box Office Mojo
• Rutger Hauer at Virtual History
• Rutger Hauer Forum

Awards and achievements
Preceded by N/A	Golden Calf for Best Actor 1981	Succeeded by Rijk de Gooyer