Worked as merchant seaman on tea schooner at age 15 (lied about his age; date approximate)

Joined the Dutch Army at age 16; applied to the officer's commission to become mountain climber, was eventually turned down

Studied drama at the University of Amsterdam

Stage debut

Toured Dutch farmlands with a theater group for six years

Film debut, "Turkish Delight"; first film with Dutch director Paul Verhoeven

First English-language film, "The Wilby Conspiracy", a British feature set in South Africa starring Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine

Starred in his international breakthrough role, Verhoeven's "Soldier of Orange"

American film debut, "Nighthawks"

American TV debut, starring as Hitler's personal architect Albert Speer in "Inside the Third Reich", an ABC docudrama miniseries

Had breakthrough screen role as a replicant in "Blade Runner"

Starred opposite Michelle Pfeiffer in "Ladyhawke"

Co-starred in the TV-movie "Escape From Sobibor"

Played one of the undead in the film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

Featured opposite Diane Keaton in the TNT biopic "Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight"

Starred in the HBO movie "Fatherland"

Appeared in the acclaimed NBC miniseries "Merlin"

Starred in the thriller "Bone Daddy"

Played a mysterious assassin in director George Clooney's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"

Starred as Earle, a businessman who has designs on Wayne Enterprises, in "Batman Begins," which stares Christian Bale as Batman

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