The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Blade Runner
Some movies just don't seem to age, and "Blade Runner" is one of them. Aside from the fact that the film is one of the most influential sci-fi flicks in cinema history, thanks to the efforts of director Ridley Scott and his production designer Lawrence G. Paull, the 1982 classic remains one of the most stunningly realized films ever made. The immersive world of Scott's dystopian sci-fi gave the impression, as Christopher Nolan once put it, of a "whole world outside the frame of the scene." That's made even more impressive when you consider the production team had a limited VFX budget and constructed most of the sets and visual effects practically.
In other words, "Blade Runner" doesn't look a tad dated even more than 40 years after its debut. Alas, the same can't be said for the cast. The sad truth is that, despite Joe Russo celebrating the inevitable rise of AI-written movies and James Cameron's talking about how we're closer than ever to "The Terminator" happening for real, we haven't yet developed the technology to create actual replicants — the synthetic humanoids that populate Scott's hellish vision of 2019 Los Angeles. As such, everyone who appeared in "Blade Runner" will sadly be lost in time ... like tears in rain. On that cheery note, here's every "Blade Runner" actor who so far has managed to cling on to sweet existence.
Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard)
We all know Harrison Ford's biggest roles are a certain captain of the Millennium Falcon and an adventuring archeologist with a talent for narrowly avoiding death. But the role right after those has got to be the Blade Runner known as Deckard. Tasked with hunting down and eliminating rogue replicants, Deckard was the protagonist of Ridley Scott's seminal 1982 effort and may or may not have been a replicant himself, depending on which of the multiple endings to "Blade Runner" you consider authentic.
Before playing Deckard, Ford appeared as Han Solo in two "Star Wars" movies and reprised the role in three more after "Blade Runner" — though he wasn't all that happy about it, apparently. Otherwise, in a career as prolific and varied as Ford's, it's hard to pack his highlights into a couple paragraphs. Whether it's his tenure as Dr. Henry Jones Jr., or his ongoing status as one of the great action movie stars, Ford has created an enviable on-screen legacy and long since cemented his standing as a true megastar. Standouts that aren't Indiana Jones or Star Wars movies include 1993's "The Fugitive," 1997's "Air Force One," and who could forget 2011's "Cowboys & Aliens"? He also returned as Deckard for Denis Villeneuve's legacy sequel, 2017's "Blade Runner 2049."
But perhaps the most impressive thing about the now-81-year-old is that he's still going strong. In 2023, not only did he star in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," he also found time to play up his comedic chops in Apple TV+'s "Shrinking" while also playing the lead in "Yellowstone" prequel series "1923." With that in mind, if I didn't know better, I'd wager that Ford himself is a replicant.
Sean Young (Rachael)
Sean Young had appeared in 1980's "Jane Austen in Manhattan" and 1981's "Stripes" before she played the part of Deckard's replicant love interest and femme fatale Rachael in "Blade Runner" — a role that would prove to be her breakout performance. Designed as an homage to a golden-age Hollywood star, Rachael's haunting beauty remains one of the most indelible images in "Blade Runner."
The Louisville-born Young went on to appear in a number of big productions in the following years, including David Lynch's infamous 1984 effort "Dune." She also co-starred alongside Kevin Costner in 1987's "No Way Out." Unfortunately, reports of Young falling out with colleagues seemed to plague her career as it went on. Those reports weren't helped by her misguided attempts to win the role of Catwoman in Tim Burton's "Batman Returns." The actress reportedly dressed in a full Catwoman outfit and arrived unannounced at Burton's office on the Warner Bros. lot. The director claims he wasn't there at the time but believes the "eyewitnesses" who were. She might have been able to convincingly deny the reports if she didn't also turn up on "The Joan Rivers Show" dressed as the Batman villain.
Still, Young would continue to act beyond that. Many a '90s kid will surely remember her as Lt. Lois Einhorn/Ray Finkle in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" but the actress has appeared in numerous projects since, even if a lot of that work was in low-budget independent projects. She would, of course, reappear in the 2017 "Blade Runner" sequel, "Blade Runner 2049," reprising the role of Rachael — though her appearance was created using archival footage and a body double. Young was still acting as of 2022, starring in the drama "No Vacancy" opposite Dean Cain.
Edward James Olmos (Detective Gaff)
At the behest of Captain Harry Bryant, LAPD Detective Gaff brought Deckard in to help hunt down the band of rogue replicants led by Rutger Hauer's Batty. Throughout the film, Gaff is on hand to keep an eye on Deckard and produce his famous origami creations, telling Ford's hero in the film's closing moments that he did "a man's job" in defeating villain Roy Batty.
Gaff was portrayed in "Blade Runner" by Edward James Olmos, who at the time had just started to see his career take off. He'd hit it big with his role as Lieutenant Martin Castillo on "Miami Vice," which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989 and earned Olmos an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal in 1985. Thanks to his non-exclusive contract with NBC, he was also able to star in 1988's "Stand and Deliver," which saw him nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.
Olmos continued to act following the end of "Miami Vice," though often in lesser-known projects that weren't anywhere near as mainstream as his Marton Castillo role. He also focused on his political and social activism, co-founding the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and the Latino Literacy Now non-profit, as well as Latino Public Broadcasting in 1998. But he maintained his acting career throughout and appeared alongside fellow "Blade Runner" alum Sean Young in 1994's "Mirage." The role for which he's perhaps best known for, however, wouldn't come along until 2004 when Olmos portrayed Admiral William Adama on "Battlestar Galactica," which ran until 2009.
The actor would return as Detective Gaff for the "Blade Runner" sequel — the too good to be a box office hit, "Blade Runner 2049" — and is still working, most recently starring as Felipe Reyes in FX's "Mayans M. C." for four seasons.
M. Emmet Walsh (Captain Harry Bryant)
Harry Bryant was the captain of LAPD's Blade Runner unit, and it was his idea to bring the retired Deckard back into the fold to track down the Nexus-6 replicant group. Portrayed by revered character actor M. Emmet Walsh, Bryant was a small role made memorable by Walsh's performance.
The New York-born actor had already starred in several films before he appeared in "Blade Runner," but would take on what might be his most well-known role in 1984 when he played private detective Loren Visser in Joel and Ethan Coen's first film, "Blood Simple." Despite the Coen brothers considering this their worst movie, Walsh won a Best Male Lead Independent Spirit Award in 1986 for his portrayal.
The prolific actor has worked consistently ever since, appearing alongside Chevy Chase in 1985's "Fletch" and showing up in everything from "Critters" (1988) to "My Best Friend's Wedding" (1997). In the 90s, he was known as Tim Allen's father-in-law on "Home Improvement" but also maintained his film career with roles in "A Time to Kill" and Baz Luhrman's "Romeo + Juliet."
He would appear in more independent features as time went on but recently lent his talents to 2019's "Knives Out" in which he played the Thrombey mansion security guard, Mr. Proofroc. My favorite modern role of Walsh's, though, was when he appeared in the "Toes" episode of "Tim and Eric's Bedtime Stories" as a Detective on the case of Bob Odenkirk's Dr. Stork and his toe-clipping business. The now-88-year-old is still going strong, appearing in four separate projects in 2022.
Daryl Hannah (Pris)
Pris was Roy Batty's lover and a member of the Nexus-6 replicant group hunted by Deckard. One of the most memorable images from "Blade Runner" and the inspiration for Rooney Mara's look in "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" is Pris' chalk white face and heavy smokey eye peering out from beneath Daryl Hannah's impressive bangs. The actress wasn't quite the star she'd become in the years following "Blade Runner" but she put her all into the role of Pris, the "basic pleasure model" replicant. The actress famously injured herself, chipping her elbow in eight places after slipping during a take and smashing her arm through the window of a car.
After "Blade Runner," Hannah gained attention for her performance as a mermaid in 1984's "Splash" and witnessed Oliver Stone's "Vietnam mentality" toward directing when she played Darien Taylor in 1987's "Wall Street." The film itself won an Academy Award, but Hannah was unfortunately the recipient of a Razzie for her performance. Still, the actress pushed ahead, continuing to act in several films before writing and directing the short film, "The Last Supper," in 1994, winning the Best Short Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. She continued to work throughout the decade, before taking on one of her biggest roles in Elle Driver, the one-eyed assassin who faces off against Uma Thurman in the "Kill Bill" films.
Hannah worked steadily throughout the early 2000s, though mostly in TV films and series, before playing Angelica Turing in the Wachowski's Netflix series "Sense8," which ran for two seasons starting in 2015. At 62, she's still working, most recently co-starring in the Dave Franco-led Roku series "The Now." Throughout her career, Hannah remained committed to environmental causes.
William Sanderson (J.F. Sebastian)
William Sanderson played J.F. Sebastian, a genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation who suffers from a condition that causes him to age much more rapidly than an average human. Sebastian lived in the Bradbury apartments and took in Daryl Hannah's Pris before being manipulated by Roy Batty into gaining him and his Nexus-6 replicants access to Eldon Tyrell's home. Once inside the head of the Tyrell corporation's living quarters, the crazed replicant killed both Tyrell and Sebastian.
This was a fairly big role for the now-retired Sanderson, who would continue acting for decades after "Blade Runner," appearing in 1984's "City Heat" and 1994's "The Client" among numerous other films. But his most well-known role would be on TV as Larry, one of three brothers who appeared in a recurring capacity on the CBS sitcom "Newhart," which ran from 1982-1990. Sanderson played the only speaking brother of the trio, and became known for his introductory catchphrase, "Hello, my name is Larry. This is my brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl."
More recent roles include Sheriff Bud Dearborne on "True Blood," and E. B. Farnum on "Deadwood" — a role that would provide his last on-screen performance in 2019's farewell to the celebrated HBO western, "Deadwood: The Movie." That same year, Sanderson released an autobiography "Yes, I'm That Guy: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Character Actor," before announcing his retirement in 2020.
James Hong (Hannibal Chew)
James Hong was no rookie when he played Hannibal Chew in "Blade Runner," having become known for his role in the series "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" which ran from 1957–1958. He'd also landed roles in such classic series as "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "Hawaii Five-O," as well as appearing in numerous successful films including 1974's "Chinatown" and 1980's "Airplane!" While he had a small role in "Blade Runner," it was no less memorable. Chew was responsible for crafting replicant eyes, and was confronted in his frozen lab by Roy Batty and Leon Kowalski (Brion James), who tortured the poor designer into revealing that J.F. Sebastian was the key to getting close to Eldon Tyrell.
Hong's post-"Blade Runner" career was no less prolific than his prior run, with the actor showing up as a guest on several TV shows such as "MacGyver," consistently appearing in Hollywood films such as "Big Trouble in Little China," "Wayne's World 2," and "The Shadow," and even co-directing the 1990 effort "The Vineyard" along with William Rice. And the man didn't stop there. More recently he appeared alongside Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds in 2013's "R.I.P.D." and formed part of the Screen Actors Guild Award-winning ensemble of 2022's "Everything Everywhere All at Once," playing the grandfather, Gong Gong, and becoming a 93-year-old action star in the process.
Outside of acting, Hong co-founded the first Asian American theater group East West Players, and in 2022, was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the oldest person to ever receive the honor at 93. Now 94, Hong shows no signs of slowing down.