Struycken was born in The Hague, Netherlands. When he was four years old, his family moved to Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles. There, at age 15, he composed several Caribbean waltzes. At 16, he returned to his home country, where he finished secondary school. He graduated from the directing program at the film school in Amsterdam. After that, he spent a year at the American Film Institute, in Los Angeles. His distinctive facial features and height—he is 7 feet tall—are due to acromegaly.\n', '

In 1978, Struycken was "discovered" as an actor at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles by a woman who had abandoned her car in the middle of the street, calling after him: "We need you for a movie!". The film was Sgt. Pepper\'s Lonely Hearts Club Band.\n', '

Struycken played Terak in the 1985 TV film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, a spinoff to the original Star Wars trilogy.\n', '

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