A Dutch actor best known for playing Roy Batty in "Blade Runner" and the knight Navarre in "Ladyhawke." He was born in Breukelen, Utrecht in the Netherlands and was the son of drama teachers. He attended the Academy for Theater and Dance in Amsterdam until he was drafted to serve as a combat medic in the Royal Netherlands Army. In 1969 he was cast in the lead role of the television series "Floris," a Dutch medieval action drama, a role which made him famous in the Netherlands. He made his English debut in the British film about apartheid, "The Wilby Conspiracy" in 1975. His first American film was opposite Sylvester Stallone in the 1981 movie "Nighthawks," playing a psychopathic terrorist named Wulfgar. He appeared frequently in horror films, such as "The Hitcher," "Surviving the Game," and "Rite." His most famous role was as the leader of the replicants in the science fiction movie "Blade Runner" opposite Harrison Ford. In one of his final scenes, he improvised the oft quoted "tears in rain" monologue which was described by critic Mark Rowlands as "perhaps the most moving death soliloquy in cinematic history." Later roles included the French knight Navarre in the 1985 American medieval fantasy film "Ladyhawke" opposite Michelle Pfeiffer as a pair of lovers cursed to be separated by day and night; and a comedic turn in 1992's comedy film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," acting as the narcissistic leader of a gang of vampires. A prolific actor, he appeared in over 172 films and television series, frequently as a vampire or religious figure. He appeared in six episodes of the HBO series "True Blood" as Niall Brigant, a vampire king and on ABC's musical comedy "Galavant." He received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Inside the Third Reich, Escape from Sobibor," the 1999 Dutch Best Actor of the Century Rembrandt Awards, and was made a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2013.