Monday, September 22, 2008
About Erik Hazelhoff-Roelfzema
Spy brings war stories to air show
By LESLIE DICKSON
Abbotsford News
Aug 13 2005
Holland's own James Bond snuck into the Abbotsford International Airshow
yesterday to sign his latest autobiography, In Pursuit of Life, and help
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII.
Erik Hazelhoff-Roelfzema played an integral role in the Allies' victory
over Germany and the other Axis powers in the Second World War, by
spying for England in German-occupied Holland.
Speaking to the Abbotsford News inside the Dutch Pavilion at the air
show yesterday, Roelfzema recounted his war-time adventures.
A law student at Leiden University in the Netherlands when the Second
World War broke out in 1939, Roelfzema escaped the occupied country a
year later and went to England.
At the time of his escape, Roelfzema said communication between Holland
and the Allies was virtually non-existent because of the German
presence.
"In England, they were desperate to know more about the German situation
on the Continent," he said.
So Roelfzema approached the British secret service, MI6, about making
secret landings on the coast of Holland.
And over the course of many covert trips back to Holland in the early
40s, Roelfzema was able to smuggle out crucial intelligence and provide
a necessary line of communication with the Dutch.
"It was really the first information between German-occupied Holland and
the Allies," noted Roelfzema.
And despite the many risks of being a secret agent, Roelfzema said sheer
determination and the knowledge he gained while living in Holland prior
to his escape gave him confidence in the face of danger.
"I never thought I was going to be caught. If you start thinking that
way, you never do that kind of job," he said.
But even someone as determined as this Dutchman could only spy for so
long. Once the Germans in Holland began to recognize his face, Roelfzema
became a Royal Air Force pilot for the duration of the war. He later
returned to the Netherlands to be an aide to the then-queen of the
Netherlands, Wilhelmina.
While he has had other adventures since WWII - acting in Hollywood and
prospecting for oil in Iran - Roelfzema's spy tales remain the most
compelling.
The autobiography he penned about his war-time experiences, Soldier of
Orange, has sold more than a million copies in his native country. And
the movie of the same name, with fellow Dutchman Rutger Hauer playing
Roelfzema, received an Oscar for best foreign film in 1979.
And even though he now lives a quiet life in Hawaii with his wife,
Karin, Roelfzema continues to draw fans when he makes public
appearances.
Dutch citizen Ceese Aandewiel, who travelled all the way from the
Netherlands with his wife for a chance to see the WWII spy in person at
the Abbotsford air show, called Roelfzema's war-time contribution
"tremendous."
"It's such a big (part of) history, what he did," said Aandewiel after
meeting the countryman he has admired for more than half a century.
"He's such a famous man; you have to see him."
Aandewiel, himself a Japanese POW in Indonesia during WWII, said it was
also great to come to the country that played such a large role in
freeing his country from its German oppressors.
"We are, as Dutch people, very proud of the Canadian liberators," he
said.
But how did Roelfzema manage to stay under the German's radar, when
others got caught?
"I'm smart and lucky. That's quite a combination, of course," said
Roelfzema, his mind still sharp at 88.
© Copyright 2005 Abbotsford News
Posted at 01:07 am by Maria Henriques
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Posted at 04:48 am by Maria Henriques
Friday, May 11, 2007
Rutger Hauer has written a book
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Rutger Hauer has written a book chronicling his 50 years traveling the
world working as a merchant seaman and then actor.
Actor Rutger Hauer reflects on a lifetime of travel and film. He will
sign copies of his autobiography May 8 in Malibu.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Actor Rutger Hauer has spent nearly 50 years traveling the world,
first as a merchant seaman and then as an internationally recognized
film star, with more than 50 major roles under his belt. During those
years, he has collected stories-loads of them.
The Netherlands-born actor with the piercing blue eyes known as "the
Dutch Paul Newman," has put as many of them as he could into an
autobiography that covers an action-driven, tumultuous career and
titled it, "All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants
and Blade Runners."
The problem when writing such a memoir, Hauer said, was what to leave
out. "My life is too full to put it all in a book," he said. "So, I
wrote a lot and then we grabbed the best parts of my history."
In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the release of "Blade
Runner," director Ridley Scott's dark, apocalyptic vision of the
not-too-distant future, in which he played one of the film's
"replicants," Hauer penned "All Those Moments" with collaborator
Patrick Quinlan (and published by HarperEntertainment).
"I have always kept diaries," Hauer said. "So I thought the re-release
of "Blade Runner" was the perfect time for my variation of an
autobiography. But the final version took a lot of paring down of my
life."
Hauer inherited his theatrical instincts from his parents, both
successful actors, who, he insisted, never pushed him stage-ward at
all. "In fact," Hauer recalled, "I remember being about 11 years old
onstage with my father in some classical Greek play. I looked out into
this audience and thought, 'How silly. If this is what my parents do,
I don't get it.'"
Rutger Hauer will read selections from his autobiography at Diesel, A
Bookstore on May 8, at 7 p.m. More information can be obtained by
calling 310.456.9961
http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2007/05/02/life_and_arts/art2.txt
Posted at 04:36 am by Maria Henriques
Rutger Hauer writes memoirs
He came to mainstream prominence as a machine more human than his creators in Blade Runner, terrified us as a hitchhiker bent on his own death and the death of anyone who got in his way in The Hitcher, and unforgettably portrayed a lonely king roaming the night as a wolf and pining for the love of a hawk during the day in Ladyhawke,
Rutger Hauer has dazzled audiences for years with his creepy, inspiring, and villainous portrayals of everyone from a cold-blooded terrorist in Nighthawks to a blind martial arts master in Blind Fury, but his movie career was nothing compared to his real-life adventures of riding horses, sword fighting, and leaving home at fifteen to scrub decks on a freighter and explore the world.
From poverty to working with a traveling theater troupe to his breakout European performance in Turkish Delight and working with legendary directors such as Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop and Basic Instinct) and Ridley Scott (Alien and Gladiator), Hauer has collected All Those Moments here.
Posted at 04:35 am by Maria Henriques
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Posted at 10:43 pm by Maria Henriques
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Posted at 12:50 am by Maria Henriques
Posted at 12:47 am by Maria Henriques
Monday, December 25, 2006
Posted at 02:17 am by Maria Henriques
Posted at 01:50 am by Maria Henriques
