It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of the actor Rutger Haeur. The Dutch actor passed two days ago after a short illness. He was seventy five years old. With over one hundred and seventy credits to his name he had a career that spanned fifty years, initially on television and film in his native Holland until the inevitable call came and he was lured to the bright lights of Hollywood.
He is, of course, best known for his portrayal of the replicant Roy Batty in the 1982 film Blade Runner. His sinister and reserved performance alongside the partially improvised speech at the end of the movie made him an instant cult figure. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in trying to imaging what attach ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion looked like. From there he built up an impressive body of work where he could turn his talents to pretty much any genre.
For me, the best showcase for his talents came with two roles outside of the iconic Roy Batty. In Nighthawks form 1981, one of his first Hollywood films, he was the European terrorist being hunted down by Sylvester Stallone in a particularly gritty New York City . It was an electrifying performance that marked him as an actor to be watched and a consummate antagonist. The second was a far more low key performance in the 1994 movie Fatherland. Here he was the over the hill police officer in a post war Europe where Germany had been victorious. It was a totally different type of role for him as a world weary older man trying to solve a brutal crime and keep his himself sane.
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