‘Blade Runner’ co-star and memorable bad guy, Rutger Hauer passes away at 75

Hollywood actor Rutger Hauer who is best known for his role in Blade Runner, has passed away after a brief illness at the age of 75-years.

An AIDS charity with which the actor was associated, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Foundation, said he died peacefully at his Dutch home on July 19th. The charity also said that his wife, Ineke, will carry on its work.

According to the Dutch media, Hauer was buried at a private ceremony and his family was not immediately available for comment.

The much-admired Dutch actor got his first break in 1969 when he was cast in a historical Dutch television series called “Floris” directed by the then little known Paul Verhoeven.

Talking about Hauer’s death, Verhoeven told the Dutch ANP news wire that, “I have lost my alter ego. “I am extremely sad that he’s not with us anymore. I am going to miss him terribly”.

He first came to the attention of US audiences when Hauer was teamed up with Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone in the 1981 thriller “Nighthawks”.

His performance in 1982’s Blade Runner was by far his most famous role of a murderous synthetic human, or replicant, named Roy Batty, which made him one of Hollywood’s film icons.

He frequently appeared in period pieces, subsequently playing an accursed knight opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie “Ladyhawke,” and a villainous rogue in the medieval drama “Flesh + Blood.”

Hauer was also well known for horror and vampire roles, starring as Van Helsing in Dracula 3D, and as the vampire Barlow in Salem’s Lot, 2004 miniseries of the Stephen King novel.

He also appeared in parts of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Sin City” and “Batman Begins,” in which he played the corrupt executive running Bruce Wayne’s family business.

Filmmakers, actors, and fans pay their tributes to Hauer on social media: