Holland to Hollywood: 20 stars you didn't know were from The Netherlands

As many of us know, Hollywood is a place uniting a great number of talents from all over the world. Among its variety of nationalities, Holland (or The Netherlands) is not far behind. Let's take a look at this list of Dutch people in Hollywood.

Rutger Hauer is well-known for movies like 'Blade Runner' (1982), 'Ladyhawke' (1985, image), and 'The Hitcher' (1986). He won a Golden Globe for the TV movie 'Escape from Sobibor' (1987). The actor died in 2019 in Beetsterzwaag, Friesland, The Netherlands.

You may not recognize his face, but the name surely rings a bell. Director Paul Verhoeven is indeed from The Netherlands. He's behind hits such as 'RoboCop' (1987), 'Total Recall' (1990), 'Basic Instinct' (1992), and 'Benedetta' (2021).

The unwitting Jean Green from X-Men is Famke Jansen. She was born near Amsterdam in 1964 and first worked as a model before getting famous as Xenia Onatopp in 'GoldenEye' (1995). She also appeared in series such as 'Nip Tuck' (2004-2010) and 'How to Get Away with Murder' (2019-2020).

Another familiar face in Hollywood is Michiel Huisman. You may recognize him from 'Game of Thrones' (2014-2016) and 'Treme' (2010-2013) on HBO, but he also appeared in 'Orphan Black' (2014- 2015), 'The Haunting of Hill House' (2018), and 'The Flight Attendant' (2020).

Carice van Houten is best known as the witch Melisandre from 'Game of Thrones.' She also appeared in 'Valkyrie' (2008) and the series 'Temple' (2019-) and 'Dangerous Liaisons' (2022).

Here's another beautiful and talented Dutch actress who made it in Hollywood. Do you remember her, alongside George Clooney, in 'The American' (2010)? She also appeared in 'In Bruges' (2008), 'Red Sparrow' (2018), and the series 'Warrior Nun' (2020).

This Amsterdam-born actor has often been cast for bad guy roles, as often happens with northern European actors. Most famous are the Bond film 'The Living Daylights' (1987) and 'The Fugitive' (1993) with Harrison Ford.

Look closely... Yes, it's 'Lurch' from 'The Addams Family' (1991, 1993)! This actor is from Holland, very tall (7' or 2m13) and he appeared in many more Hollywood productions than just the Addams saga. How about 'Men in Black' (1997) or the legendary series 'Twin Peaks' (1990-1991, 2017) and 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (1987-1992)?

Sylvia Kristel is the eternal Emmanuelle from the movies (1974-1993) with the same name. While the films are French, Kristel was from Holland. She also starred in 'Red Heat' (1985) and 'Mata Hari' (1985), among other productions. In 2012, she died of cancer in Utrecht, Netherlands, the city where she was born.

A cinematographer and director with a familiar name, Jan de Bont is responsible for both 'Speed' films (1994 and 1996), as well as 'Twister' (1996) and 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life' (2003), among others.

This handsome Dutch actor of Moroccan descent played Jafar in 'Aladdin' (2019). He also appeared in 'Ben-Hur' (2016), 'The Mummy' (2017), and 'Murder on the Orient Express' (2017).

A model and actress in The Netherlands, Hoeks has broken through in Hollywood with 'Blade Runner 2049' (2017), 'Renegades' (2017), and 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' (2018). She also played in the series 'See' (2019-2022) alongside Jason Momoa.

Born in 2002, this young Dutch actor has made incredible progress since 2020. He went from a role in 'Arctic Circle' (2021-2022) to 'The English' (2022) with Emily Blunt and 'Rabbit Hole' (2022) with Kiefer Sutherland on Paramount Plus.

Remember her from 'Peaky Blinders' (2016)? She was the seductive Russian princess Tatiana Petrovna. The promising Dutch actress can also be seen in 'Line of Duty' (2017) and 'Jett' (2019).

Here we see Yorick van Wageningen in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (2011). He is also known for 'The New World' (2005), 'Escape Room' (2019), and the Netflix series 'The Letter to the King' (2020).

A veteran actor, Derek de Lint appeared in 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' (1988) and 'Deep Impact' (1998) while also starring in series like 'Poltergeist: The Legacy' (1996-1999), 'NCIS' (2004), and 'Jack Ryan' (2022).

Renée Soutendijk was born in Amsterdam in 1957 and appeared in numerous international productions since the 80s. Known titles are 'Eve of Destruction' (1986), 'A Perfect Man' (2013), and 'Suspiria' (2018).

As an actress, model, and dancer, Lotte Verbeek has reached an international audience. 'The Fault in Our Stars' (2014) is the most famous movie she appeared in, but there are also several popular series like 'Outlander ' (2014-2017), 'Agent Carter' (2016), and 'The Blacklist' (2016-2021).

She was Emily Grace in 'Westworld' (2018-2020) but we also know her from the series 'The Americans' (2015), 'Manhattan' (2014-2015), and 'The Leftovers' (2017).

The lovely, beautiful, talented, and intelligent Audrey Hepburn, was born in Belgium in an aristocratic Dutch family. Among the many languages she spoke was the tongue of the Belgian Flanders and The Netherlands. Among her best-known works are 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' (1961) and 'My Fair Lady' (1964).