The reaction to him is still ambivalent. He chain smokes and commutes. For every Gaulois there seems to be a flight from his potato farm in Holland to his 52-foot sailboat the Marius which bobs in the waters of Marina-Del-Rey a few minutes drive from Los Angeles Airport . He likes the sea. He comes from a theatrical family but ran away from home to join the Dutch Navy. Then there was a spell in the Army. He didn't like that and got himself discharged 'for psychological unfitness.' He went to drama school in Amsterdam , had a spell in Basle as a stagehand/heating engineer/actor and then returned to Holland to work with a theatre company. 'Someone suggested I might be better of in the movies. I walked away from it and basically created my own job..' He became a European star with the television adventure series 'Floris' which got Paul Verhoeven's attention and Hauer the lead role in 'Turkish Delight' in 1973. He played a randy sculptor and the raunchy scenes -- which Verhoeven would expand on with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone in 'Basic Instinct' -- were regarded as rather naughty those couple of decades ago. At the same time Hauer was involved in a domestic drama.. His first wife had walked out of their brief, early marriage with his daughter Aysha. He did not see his daughter until she was 17. He has been involved with the acclaimed painter Ineke Stein for 26 years and, despite being unable to have children, they have their own family trauma. Aysha became involved with an Italian actor but when their relationship ended she left their six-year-old Leonardo who now lives with foster parents in California . Hauer wants to adopt his grandson but the international courts have proved more obstacles than judiciary forums. It is a subject he will not be drawn on. All you can get is a promise of talking when he has the result he wants which may be in April this year(1995) He's strong and silent on the subject. It's the only time he returns to his quiet, detached Guinness image. It's a job he's thankful for. The brewery told his agent:' We are looking for someone who physically would resemble a pint of Guinness, dark, cool and blonde and enigmatic... and he fits the bill.' It has proved a presentable pension plan. But Hauer who has a pentulant look because of that lower lip that droops, believes he has more to do than sip espresso and puff Gaulois. But, after all the years, this hybrid -- a man caught between Hollywood and Holland -- still seeks a niche. 'There seems to be a bigger need in Hollywood for people to stereotype. They want to put you in a box. It makes for short-term security I guess but the problem is that people don't come in boxes. We're more like bubbles of water. 'They always want to put me in bad guy boxes but playing villains comes easy to me. I find that people are fascinated by evil. They're totally paralysed by it and, as an actor, I'm not. Part of the freedom you have as a bad guy is that you can go anywhere especially if it's a psychotic bad guy. You can do anything you want. I think in my darker characters I go a little further than most American actors.
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