Rutger Hauer, “Blade Runner” star, dies at 75

Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his role in the 1982 film “Blade Runner,” has died, his management agency confirmed to CBS News. He was 75.

The Rutger Hauer Starfish Association, his nonprofit aimed at HIV and AIDS awareness, also issued a statement Wednesday saying Hauer died at his home on Friday, July 19, after a “very short illness.”

Hauer’s roles included a terrorist in “Nighthawks” with Sylvester Stallone, a former CEO of Wayne Enterprises in “Batman Begins,” and he was in the big-budget 1985 fantasy “Ladyhawke.” He won a supporting-actor Golden Globe award in 1988 for “Escape from Sobibor.”

In “Blade Runner,” he played the murderous replicant Roy Batty on a desperate quest to prolong his artificially shortened life in post-apocalyptic, 21st-century Los Angeles.

Variety first reported news of Hauer’s death.

Hauer was born in the small town of Breukelen in the Netherlands on January 23, 1944. Hauer leaves behind his wife Ineke, who he married in 1985.