- 2005: Starred in "Sin City" the adaptation of comic book icon Frank Miller's uber-noir series of grapic novels; co-directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez
- 2005: Starred as Earle, a businessman who has designs on Wayne Enterprises, in "Batman Begins," which stares Christian Bale as Batman
- 2002: Played a mysterious assassin in director George Clooney's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"
- 1998: Appeared in the acclaimed NBC miniseries "Merlin"
- 1998: Starred in the thriller "Bone Daddy"
- 1994: Starred in the HBO movie "Fatherland"
- 1994: Featured opposite Diane Keaton in the TNT biopic "Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight"
- 1992: Played one of the undead in the film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
- 1991: American film debut, "Nighthawks"
- 1987: Co-starred in the TV-movie "Escape From Sobibor"
- 1985: Starred opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in "Ladyhawke"
- 1982: Had breakthrough screen role as a replicant in "Blade Runner"
- 1982: American TV debut, starring as Hitler's personal architect Albert Speer in "Inside the Third Reich", an ABC docudrama miniseries
- 1979: Starred in his international breakthrough role, Verhoeven's "Soldier of Orange"
- 1975: First English-language film, "The Wilby Conspiracy", a British feature set in South Africa starring Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine
- 1973: Film debut, "Turkish Delight"; first film with Dutch director Paul Verhoeven
- 1967: Stage debut
- 1967: Toured Dutch farmlands with a theater group for six years
- 1960: Joined the Dutch Army at age 16; applied to the officer's commission to become mountain climber, was eventually turned down
- 1959: Worked as merchant seaman on tea schooner at age 15 (lied about his age; date approximate)
- Studied drama at the University of Amsterdam




