[1] After gaining international recognition with Soldier of Orange (1977) and Spetters (1980), he moved into American films such as Nighthawks (1981) and Blade Runner (1982), starring in the latter as self-aware replicant Roy Batty.

[3] His performance in Blade Runner led to roles in The Osterman Weekend (1983), Ladyhawke (1985), The Hitcher (1986), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988), and Blind Fury (1989), among other films.

Towards the end of his career, he made a return to Dutch cinema, and won the 2012 Rembrandt Award for Best Actor in recognition of his lead role in The Heineken Kidnapping (2011).

"[8] His parents were Teunke (née Mellema) and Arend Hauer, both actors who operated an acting school in nearby Amsterdam.

[2] Hauer made his screen debut in 1969 when Paul Verhoeven cast him in the lead role of the television series Floris, a Dutch medieval action drama.

[16][17] Hauer's career changed course when Verhoeven cast him in Turkish Delight (1973), which received an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film.

[22] Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks (1981) as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named Wulfgar.

[23] Unafraid of controversial roles,[2] he portrayed the German architect and Nazi minister Albert Speer in the 1982 American Broadcasting Company production Inside the Third Reich.

[25] Hauer composed parts of the monologue the evening prior to filming, "cutting away swathes of the original script before adding the speech's poignant final line".

[26] He went on to play the adventurer courting Theresa Russell in Eureka (1983),[27] an investigative reporter opposite John Hurt in The Osterman Weekend (1983),[28], the hardened mercenary Martin in Flesh & Blood (1985), and a knight paired with Michelle Pfeiffer in Ladyhawke (1985).

[29] At the height of Hauer's fame, he was set to be cast as RoboCop (1987), but Verhoeven, the film's director, considered his frame as too large to move comfortably in the character's suit.

[30] Also in 1987, Hauer starred as Nick Randall in Wanted: Dead or Alive as the descendant of the character played by Steve McQueen in the television series of the same name.

He initially struggled with the implausibility of the character, but learned to "unfocus my eyes, to react to smells and sounds" after meeting with blind judo practitioner Lynn Manning during his research for the role.

[33] By the 1990s, Hauer was well known for his humorous Guinness commercials[13] as well as his screen roles, which had increasingly involved low-budget films,[2] such as Split Second (1992); The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1994); Omega Doom (1996) and New World Disorder (1999).

[41] Hauer played an assassin in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2003), a villainous cardinal with influential power in Sin City (2005) and a devious corporate executive running Wayne Enterprises in Batman Begins (2005).

[42] Hauer hosted the British reality television documentary Shock Treatment in 2005, and featured in Goal II: Living the Dream (2007) as Real Madrid coach Rudi Van der Merwe.

[60] In April 2007, he published his autobiography, All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners (co-written with Patrick Quinlan), in which he discussed many of his acting roles.