Rutger Oelsen Hauer is a Dutch film actor. He is well known for his roles in Flesh + Blood, Blind Fury, Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Nighthawks, Sin City, Ladyhawke, The Blood of Heroes and Batman Begins. Hauer was born in Breukelen, Netherlands, to drama teachers Arend and Teunke, and grew up in Amsterdam. Since his parents were very occupied with their careers, he and his three sisters (one older, two younger) were raised 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 carpenter for three years while attending acting classes at night school. He went on to join an experimental troupe, with which he remained for five years before he was cast in the lead role in the very successful 1969 television series Floris, a Dutch Ivanhoe-like medieval action drama. The role made him famous in his native country. Hauer's career changed course when director Paul Verhoeven cast him as the lead in Turkish Delight (1973) (based on the Jan Wolkers book of the same name). The movie found box-office favour abroad as well as at home, and within two years, its star was invited to make his English-language debut in the British film The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Set in South Africa and starring Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, the film was an action melodrama with a focus on apartheid. Hauer's supporting role, however, was barely noticed in Hollywood, and he returned to Dutch films for several years. Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Nighthawks (1981), cast as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named "Wolfgar" (after a character in the Old English poem Beowulf). The following year, he appeared in arguably his most famous and acclaimed role as the eccentric, violent, yet sympathetic replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi thriller, Blade Runner. Hauer is a dedicated environmentalist. He fought for the release of Greenpeace's co-founder, Paul Watson, who was convicted in 1994 for sinking a Norwegian whaling vessel. Hauer has also established an AIDS awareness foundation called the Rutger Hauer Starfish Foundation. He 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 1988. 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 Foundation.
Movie | Emperor | John The Constant | 2025 |
Movie | Tonight at Noon | Diego | 2025 |
Movie | Albert Speer und der Traum von Hollywood | Himself (archive footage) | 2021-05-03 |
Movie | Break | Ray | 2020-04-20 |
Movie | Iron Mask | English Ambassador | 2019-08-16 |
Movie | Samson | Manoah | 2018-02-16 |
Movie | Corbin Nash | Stranger | 2018-04-20 |
Movie | The Sonata | Richard Marlowe | 2018-11-15 |
Movie | The Sisters Brothers | The Commodore | 2018-09-19 |
Movie | Uncle Howard | Self (archive footage) | 2017-03-10 |
Series | Mata Hari | Стольбаккен | 2017-03-20 |
Movie | Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | President of the World State Federation | 2017-07-20 |
Movie | Gangsterdam | Dolph | 2017-03-29 |
Movie | 24 Hours to Live | Frank | 2017-10-26 |
Movie | The Broken Key | Professor Moonlight | 2017-11-16 |
Movie | Drawing Home | Carl Rungius | 2017-12-01 |
Movie | The Worlds of Philip K. Dick | Self - Actor | 2016-03-02 |
Movie | Wax: We Are The X | Aron Mulder | 2016-03-31 |
Movie | Beyond Valkyrie: Dawn of the Fourth Reich | Oskar Halminski | 2016-10-03 |
Series | Channel Zero | Joseph Peach | 2016-10-11 |
Movie | The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power | King Zakour | 2015-01-09 |
Movie | Admiral | Maarten Tromp | 2015-01-29 |
Movie | Unity | Narrator (voice) | 2015-08-12 |
Movie | Behind the White Glasses | Self | 2015-09-21 |
Movie | Fifty Shades of Erotica | 2015-04-13 | |
Movie | Clones | Dr. Richards | 2015-07-04 |
Movie | The Letters | Benjamin Praagh | 2014-02-23 |
Movie | Francesco | Padre di Francesco | 2014-12-08 |
Movie | 2047: Sights of Death | Colonel Asimov | 2014-06-13 |
Series | Flight of the Storks | Sonderman | 2013-01-21 |
Movie | The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of The Dark Knight Trilogy | Self (archive footage) | 2013-09-24 |
Movie | The Future | Maciste | 2013-09-06 |
Movie | Real Playing Game | Steve Batier | 2013-08-28 |
Movie | Dracula 3D | Abraham van Helsing | 2012-11-09 |
Movie | Agent Ranjid rettet die Welt | Freek van Dyk | 2012-10-18 |
Series | Metal Hurlant Chronicles | Kerm | 2012-10-27 |
Movie | Black Butterflies | Abraham Jonker | 2011-02-06 |
Movie | The Rite | Istvan Kovak | 2011-01-28 |
Movie | Spoon | Victor Spoon | 2011-01-01 |
Movie | All for One | Niemeyer | 2011-02-10 |
Movie | Portable Life | Antonio | 2011-09-01 |
Movie | The Heineken Kidnapping | Alfred Heineken | 2011-10-27 |
Movie | The 5th Execution | Khant | 2011-03-24 |
Movie | The Reverend | The Withstander | 2011-08-03 |
Movie | More Blood, More Heart: The Making of Hobo with a Shotgun | Himself | 2011-07-04 |
Movie | Hobo with a Shotgun | Hobo | 2011-05-06 |
Movie | The Cardboard Village | 2011-09-06 | |
Movie | Happiness Runs | Insley | 2010-05-14 |
Movie | Life's a Beach | Jean-Luc | 2010-01-01 |
Movie | Barbarossa | Federico Barbarossa | 2009-10-09 |
Movie | Dazzle | 2009-01-01 | |
Movie | Bride Flight | Old Frank | 2008-10-15 |
Movie | The Prince of Motor City | 2008-07-09 | |
Movie | Dangerous Days: Making 'Blade Runner' | Self | 2007-12-18 |
Movie | Starting Over | Peter Rossen | 2007-11-10 |
Movie | Goal! II: Living the Dream | Rudi van der Merwe | 2007-02-09 |
Movie | Dead Tone | Det. John Criton | 2007-05-16 |
Movie | Moving McAllister | Maxwell McAllister | 2007-09-13 |
Movie | The Hunt for Eagle One | Gen. Frank Lewis | 2006-01-17 |
Movie | Mentor | Sanford Pollard | 2006-04-28 |
Movie | Minotaur | Cyrnan | 2006-03-11 |
Movie | The Hunt for Eagle One: Crash Point | Gen. Frank Lewis | 2006-06-27 |
Movie | The Poseidon Adventure | Bishop August Schmidt | 2005-11-20 |
Movie | Sin City | Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark | 2005-04-01 |
Movie | Batman Begins | William Earle | 2005-06-10 |
Movie | Mirror Wars: Reflection One | Mysterious Man | 2005-09-01 |
Movie | Dracula III: Legacy | Dracula | 2005-07-12 |
Movie | Tempesta | Van Beuningen | 2004-05-10 |
Series | Salem's Lot | Kurt Barlow | 2004-06-20 |
Movie | The Hitcher: How Do These Movies Get Made? | 2003-03-04 | |
Movie | The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair | Paul Marcinkus | 2002-03-07 |
Movie | Scorcher | US President Nelson | 2002-10-04 |
Movie | Warrior Angels | Grekkor | 2002-10-11 |
Movie | Confessions of a Dangerous Mind | Keeler | 2002-12-31 |
Movie | Lying in Wait | Keith Miller | 2001-03-15 |
Movie | Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal | Copilot MacIntosh | 2001-05-13 |
Movie | Flying Virus | Ezekial | 2001-12-31 |
Movie | Wilder | Dr. Sam Dennis Charney | 2000-11-01 |
Movie | Partners in Crime | Gene Reardon | 2000-01-07 |
Movie | On the Edge of 'Blade Runner' | Self | 2000-07-15 |
Series | The 10th Kingdom | Huntsman | 2000-02-27 |
Movie | Simon Magus | Count Albrecht, the Squire | 1999-02-17 |
Movie | New World Disorder | David Marx | 1999-12-03 |
Movie | Bone Daddy | Palmer | 1998-07-19 |
Movie | Tactical Assault | Capitaine John 'Doc' Holiday | 1998-04-07 |
Series | Merlin | King Vortingern | 1998-04-26 |
Movie | Knockin' on Heaven's Door | Curtiz | 1997-02-20 |
Movie | Blast | Leo | 1997-03-13 |
Movie | The Ruby Ring | Patrick Collins | 1997-11-26 |
Movie | Hostile Waters | Cap. Britanov | 1997-10-18 |
Movie | The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon | John Thornton | 1997-06-22 |
Movie | Eating Pattern | Bog | 1997-09-04 |
Movie | Bleeders | Dr. Marlowe | 1997-07-31 |
Movie | Paul Verhoeven: From Holland to Hollywood | Himself | 1996-01-08 |
Movie | Mariette in Ecstasy | Chaplan | 1996-07-04 |
Movie | Precious Find | Armond Crille | 1996-06-26 |
Movie | Crossworlds | A.T. | 1996-10-30 |
Movie | Omega Doom | Omega Doom | 1996-10-21 |
Movie | Mr. Stitch | Doctor Rue Wakeman | 1995-11-20 |
Movie | Blood of the Innocent | Dr. Lem | 1994-01-01 |
Movie | Surviving the Game | Thomas Burns | 1994-04-15 |
Movie | Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight | Fred Noonan | 1994-06-12 |
Movie | Fatherland | SS-Sturmbannführer Xavier March | 1994-11-26 |
Movie | The Beans of Egypt, Maine | Rueben Bean | 1994-11-23 |
Movie | Nostradamus | The Mystic Monk | 1994-08-18 |
Movie | The Revenge of the Dead Indians | Himself | 1993-01-01 |
Movie | Voyage | Morgan Norvell | 1993-06-01 |
Movie | Arctic Blue | Ben Corbett | 1993-01-01 |
Movie | Blind Side | Jake Shell | 1993-01-30 |
Movie | Split Second | Harley Stone | 1992-05-01 |
Movie | Past Midnight | Ben Jordan | 1992-05-03 |
Movie | Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Lothos | 1992-07-24 |
Movie | Beyond Justice | Tom Burton | 1992-12-02 |
Movie | Desert Law | Tom Burton | 1991-03-19 |
Movie | Wedlock | Frank Warren | 1991-05-10 |
Movie | The Blood of Heroes | Sallow | 1989-10-19 |
Movie | Blind Fury | Nick Parker | 1989-08-17 |
Movie | On a Moonlit Night | John Knott | 1989-09-05 |
Movie | Bloodhounds of Broadway | The Brain | 1989-11-03 |
Movie | The Legend of the Holy Drinker | Andreas Kartak | 1988-09-02 |
Movie | Wanted: Dead or Alive | Nick Randall | 1987-01-16 |
Movie | Escape from Sobibor | Alexander 'Sasha' Pechersky | 1987-04-12 |
Movie | The Hitcher | John Ryder | 1986-01-17 |
Movie | Ladyhawke | Captain Etienne Navarre | 1985-03-27 |
Movie | Flesh + Blood | Martin | 1985-08-30 |
Movie | Terror in the Aisles | Wulfgar (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1984-10-26 |
Movie | A Breed Apart | Jim Malden | 1984-06-01 |
Movie | The Osterman Weekend | John Tanner | 1983-10-14 |
Movie | Eureka | Claude Maillot Van Horn | 1983-05-01 |
Movie | Inside the Third Reich | Albert Speer | 1982-05-09 |
Movie | Blade Runner | Roy Batty | 1982-06-25 |
Movie | Nighthawks | Wulfgar | 1981-03-17 |
Movie | Chanel Solitaire | Etienne de Balsan | 1981-01-01 |
Movie | Spetters | Gerrit Witkamp | 1980-02-28 |
Movie | Fatal Error | Rinus de Gier | 1979-09-20 |
Movie | Es begann bei Tiffany | Ryder | 1979-04-30 |
Movie | Woman Between Wolf and Dog | 1979-06-04 | |
Movie | Pastorale 1943 | August Schultz | 1978-04-20 |
Movie | Mysteries | Johan Nagel | 1978-09-07 |
Movie | Soldier of Orange | Erik Lanshof | 1977-09-22 |
Movie | Naked and Lustful | 1976-11-01 | |
Movie | Max Havelaar | Duclari | 1976-09-09 |
Movie | The Wilby Conspiracy | Blane Van Niekirk | 1975-02-01 |
Movie | Katie Tippel | Hugo | 1975-03-06 |
Movie | Cancer Rising | Pierre | 1975-09-18 |
Movie | Cold Blood | Cris | 1975-07-18 |
Movie | Cyrano de Bergerac | de Valvert | 1975-10-11 |
Series | Floris von Rosemund | Floris | 1975-08-09 |
Movie | Dandelions | Rick | 1974-10-11 |
Movie | Turkish Delight | Eric Vonk | 1973-02-22 |