Rutger Hauer, best known for his performance as replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner, has died at 75.

Blade Runner is not my all-time favorite film, but it’s in the top three. Bilge Ebiri, writing in The New York Times, writes about his performance in the film with obvious reverence. It was a chilling yet soulful performance.

Of course, he will be most remembered for his short, dying soliloquy that director Ridley Scott allowed Hauer to improvise. It was poetry in a neon-noir movie, “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

What a beautiful piece of acting.