Blade Runner actor Rutger Hauer dies at 75

Rutger Hauer.
(Image credit: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)

Rutger Hauer, the actor best known for his iconic performance of Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, has died at 75.

Hauer's agent confirmed to Variety that the actor died on July 19 in his Netherlands home following an undisclosed illness and that his funeral took place on Wednesday.

After his roles in projects such as the Dutch TV series Floris and the 1981 Sylvester Stallone thriller Nighthawks, Hauer played the replicant villain in the 1982 science-fiction film Blade Runner, a classic of the genre in which Hauer during his final scene delivers among the most memorable movie monologues of all time.

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Following his Blade Runner performance, Hauer would go on to win a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role in the television film Escape from Sobibor and star in movies like The Hitcher, Sin City, Batman Begins, and Hobo with a Shotgun, as well as HBO's True Blood. Recently, he appeared in the SyFy horror series Channel Zero and voiced Kingdom Hearts III's Xehanort.

Hauer is survived by his wife and daughter.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.