(CNN) - Rutger Hauer, a dashing Dutch actor who battled Harrison Ford in the science-fiction classic "Blade Runner" and excelled in bad-guy roles, died July 19 after a short illness, his longtime agent Steve Kenis told CNN.
An AIDS charity with which the actor was involved, the Rutger Hauer Starfish Foundation, said he died peacefully at his Dutch home.
Of working with director Ridley Scott, the actor later said, " I understood, on a very strong level, what he wanted, and by instinct I gave it to him."
(Verhoeven later considered him for the lead in the movie "RoboCop," which ultimately went to Peter Weller.)
On Twitter, director Guillermo del Toro called Hauer "an intense, deep, genuine and magnetic actor that brought truth, power and beauty to his films."