Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, best known for his role in science fiction classic "Blade Runner," died at age 75 on July 19 after a short illness at his home.

Hauer, whose funeral took place in the Netherlands on Wednesday, appeared in a total of over 100 Dutch and international movies. He won a Golden Globe in 1988 for his role in "Escape from Sobibor."

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

In his dying, rain-soaked soliloquy, he looked back at his extraordinary existence. "All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain. Time to die," he said.

Hauer starred in Dutch classics and Hollywood blockbusters as well as in a whole range of B-movies, in which he was mostly cast as the villain.

"It's so much fun to playfully roam into the dark side of the soul and tease people," the actor told The Associated Press in 1987. "If you try to work on human beings' light side, that's harder. What is good is hard. Most people try to be good all their lives. So you have to work harder to make those characters interesting."

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro in a tweet called Hauer "an intense, deep, genuine and magnetic actor that brought truth, power and beauty to his films."

Gene Simmons, the KISS bassist who starred opposite Hauer in "Wanted: Dead or Alive," described his former co-star as "always a gentleman, kind and compassionate."

Hauer, who led a quiet life in the north of the Netherlands when not in Hollywood, used his money and fame to help children and pregnant women with HIV/Aids through his non-profit Starfish Association.

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who made five movies and TV series with Hauer, said he had lost his "alter ego."

"He was to me what Marcello Mastroianni was to Fellini. I have only good memories."

(With input from Reuters and The Associated Press)