Do we like Rutger Hauer?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, and there's real good on the record, but the sources are thin on his views about people.
Rutger Hauer was born in Breukelen in 1944 to two actors who ran a drama school. He left school at 16, worked on freighters, then as an electrician and a carpenter. He was kicked out of acting school for skipping classes, and the army discharged him for “psychological unfitness”. Not exactly a straight line to Hollywood.
He came back to acting properly and became a star at home in the TV series Floris. Then came a run of films with director Paul Verhoeven, including Turkish Delight and Soldier of Orange, before Hollywood called with Nighthawks and then Blade Runner in 1982. The film flopped on release and became a cult classic, and his replicant Roy Batty is the reason you know his name.
The best story is the speech. Hauer thought Batty's scripted monologue was too operatic, cut most of it and added the closing tears-in-rain image. He later said it “came from the poet in me, and there was a poet in Roy.” That is an actor trusting his gut, and it worked.
On the harm check, the record is quiet. Searches turned up no lawsuits against him, no allegations and nothing from him on trans people, women, migrants, vaccines or climate denial. His recent work was a long run of films and TV, including Batman Begins and True Blood, and nothing flagged a harmful co-star or studio. A thin record, honestly, so this is a pass on what's there, not a deep dive into his private views.
The nearest thing to a stain is Nighthawks, where he reportedly clashed with Sylvester Stallone, and he was described as intense on set. That's the whole list. Against it, Gene Simmons remembered him as “always a gentleman, kind and compassionate”, and the tributes at his death were warm.
The good stuff is real. He ran the Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, a charity fighting HIV and AIDS, and asked that it carry on after his death. He was also a long-time Sea Shepherd supporter: Paul Watson says Hauer visited him twice in a Dutch prison in 1997 and hosted a Hollywood dinner for him in 2013. Watson called him “a hero for the planet”, which is a friend's tribute, but the acts behind it check out.