Donald Sutherland, the prolific film and television actor whose long career stretched from “M.A.S.H.” to “Fellini’s Casanova” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He was 88.
Issued on: 20/06/2024 -
Kiefer Sutherland, the actor’s son, confirmed his father’s death Thursday. No further details were immediately available.
“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film,” Kiefer Sutherland said on X. “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.”
The tall and gaunt Canadian actor with a grin that could be sweet or diabolical was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned professor in “Animal House.”
Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s .
Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — parts in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” More, recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films. He never retired, working regularly up until his death. A memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” was due out in November.
“I love to work. I passionately love to work,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”
Born in St. John, New Brunswick, Donald McNichol Sutherland was the son of a salesman and a mathematics teacher. Raised in Nova Scotia, he was a disc jockey with his own radio station at the age of 14.
“When I was 13 or 14, I really thought everything I felt was wrong and dangerous, and that God was going to kill me for it,” Sutherland told The New York Times in 1981. “My father always said, ‘Keep your mouth shut, Donnie, and maybe people will think you have character.’”
Sutherland began as an engineering student at the University of Toronto but switched to English and started acting in school theatrical productions. While studying in Toronto, he met Lois Hardwick, an aspiring actress. They married in 1959, but divorced seven years later.
After graduating in 1956, Sutherland attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts to study acting. Sutherland began appearing in West End plays and British television. After a move to Los Angeles, he continued to bounce around until a series of war films changed his trajectory.
His first American film was “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), in which he played Vernon Pinkley, the officer-impersonating psychopathic. 1970 saw the release of both the World War II yarn “Kelly’s Heroes” and “M.A.S.H.,” an acclaimed smash hit that catapulted Sutherland to stardom.
“There is more challenge in character roles,” Sutherland told The Washington Post in 1970. “There’s longevity. A good character actor can show a different face in every film and not bore the public.”
If Sutherland had had his way, Altman would have been fired from “M.A.S.H.” He and co-star Elliott Gould were unhappy with the director’s unorthodox, improvisational style and fought to have him replaced. But the film caught on beyond anyone’s expectations and Sutherland identified personally with its anti-war message. Outspoken against the Vietnam War, Sutherland, actress Jane Fonda and others founded the Free Theater Associates in 1971. Banned by the Army because of their political views, they performed in venues near military bases in Southeast Asia in 1973.
Sutherland's career as a leading man peaked in the 1970s, when he starred in films by the era’s top directors — even if they didn’t always do their best work with him. Sutherland, who frequently said he considered himself at the service of a director’s vision, worked with Federico Fellini (1976’s “Fellini’s Casanova”), Bernardo Bertolucci (1976’s “1900”), Claude Chabrol (1978’s “Blood Relatives”) and John Schlesinger (1975’s “The Day of the Locust”).
One of his finest performances came as a detective in Alan Pakula’s “Klute” (1971). It was during filming on “Klute” that he met Fonda, with whom he had a three-year-long relationship that began at the end of his second marriage to actor Shirley Douglas. Having been married in 1966, he and Douglas divorced in 1971.
Sutherland had twins with Douglas in 1966: Rachel and Kiefer, who was named after Warren Kiefer, the writer of Sutherland’s first film, “Castle of the Living Dead.”
In 1974, the actor began living with actress Francine Racette, with whom he remained ever after. They had three children: Roeg, born in 1974 and named after the director Nicolas Roeg (“Don’t Look Now”); Rossif, born in 1978 and named after the director Frederick Rossif; and Angus Redford, born in 1979 and named after Robert Redford.
It was Redford who, to the surprise of some, cast Sutherland as the father in his directorial debut, 1980’s “Ordinary People.” Redford’s drama about a handsome suburban family destroyed by tragedy won four Oscars, including best picture.
Sutherland was overlooked by the academy throughout most of his career. He was never nominated but was presented with an honorary Oscar in 2017. He did, though, win an Emmy in 1995 for the TV film “Citizen X” and was nominated for seven Golden Globes (including for his performances in “M.A.S.H.” and “Ordinary People”), winning two — again for “Citizen X” and for the 2003 TV film “Path to War.”
“Ordinary People” also presaged a shift in Sutherland’s career toward more mature and sometimes less offbeat characters.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe
His New York stage debut in 1981, though, went terribly. He played Humbert Humbert in Edward Albee’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” and the reviews were merciless; it closed after a dozen performances.
A down period in the ‘80s followed, thanks to failures like the 1981 satire “Gas” and the 1984 comedy “Crackers.”
But Sutherland continued to work steadily. He had a brief but memorable role in Oliver Stone’s “JFK” (1991). He again played a patriarch for Redford in his 1993 movie “Six Degrees of Separation.” He played track coach Bill Bowerman in 1998’s “Without Limits.”
In the last decade, Sutherland increasingly worked in television, most memorably in HBO’s “Path to War,” in which he played President Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford. For a career launched by “M.A.S.H.” it was a fitting, if ironic bookend.
(AP)
Donald Sutherland hailed as 'one of most important actors' in movie history following death aged 88
By Dale Miller
Published 20th Jun 2024
Donald Sutherland had starred in numerous blockbuster films and TV programmes, including Ordinary People, M*A*S*H, The Hunger Games film series and Six Degrees Of Separation
Kiefer Sutherland has called his father Donald Sutherland “one of the most important actors in the history of film” following the Canadian actor’s death aged 88.
The star of Ordinary People, M*A*S*H, The Hunger Games film series and Six Degrees Of Separation died on Thursday in Miami, Florida, following a “long illness”, his agent CAA said.
In a tribute, the 24 TV show star Kiefer wrote on Instagram: “With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away.
“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.”
Sutherland won a Golden Globe for the TV movie Path To War for playing presidential adviser Clark Clifford and another gong along with an Emmy Award for the the mini-series Citizen X.
In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his acting but failed to get an Oscar nod during his lengthy career.
Sutherland’s most recent roles included The Hunger Games film franchise as dictator president Coriolanus Snow, and as a judge in the 2023 TV show Lawmen: Bass Reeves.
He also had roles in thriller The Mechanic, Roman epic The Eagle, war film The Dirty Dozen, satire The Day Of The Locust, horror Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, period drama Pride & Prejudice and drama Space Cowboys.
Sutherland is perhaps best known as the womanising Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce Jr in the 1970 film version of M*A*S*H, and would eventually becoming a leading campaigner against war.
In 2012, he became a Commander of the Arts in France and was praised by the French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand for his “extraordinary” career.
Sutherland was about to publish his memoir Made Up, But Still True, later this year, which was set to explore “an unfiltered account of his memories of his life” from how life-changing a role M*A*S*H had been along with “his far too many brushes with death”.
The actor had infantile paralysis and rheumatic fever before almost dying from spinal meningitis as a child, and later left Canada for the UK to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda).
Sutherland’s early roles in the 1960s included European and UK productions such as Castle Of The Living Dead, which starred Christopher Lee, and Fanatic with Tallulah Bankhead, before he was cast in The Dirty Dozen as one of the American convicts sent on a secret mission as part of the D-Day landings in the Second World War.
A statement from CAA said: “Acclaimed actor Donald Sutherland died today in Miami, Florida after a long illness. He was 88 years old.”
It also said: “Sutherland is survived by his wife Francine Racette, sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus, and Kiefer, daughter Rachel, and four grandchildren.
“A private celebration of life will be held by the family.”
Sutherland’s son Roeg is an executive at the talent agency CAA, and his sons Rossif and Angus have also worked as actors.
PM Justin Trudeau remembers ‘truly great Canadian artist’ Donald Sutherland
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has remembered actor-turned-activist Donald Sutherland as “truly a great Canadian artist” following his death aged 88.
Mr Trudeau first learned of Hollywood star Sutherland’s death while hosting a news conference in Westville, Canada, related to the national school food programme.
“I didn’t know, thank you for telling me,” he told the journalist.
“I had the opportunity when I was much younger to meet Donald Sutherland and even as a young man who hadn’t had a full exposure to the depth of brilliance of Donald Sutherland, I was deeply, deeply starstruck.
“He was a man with a strong presence, a brilliance in his craft, and truly a great Canadian artist and he will be deeply missed.
“My thoughts go out to Kiefer and the entire Sutherland family, as well as all Canadians who are no doubt saddened to learn as I am right now.”
During his esteemed career, Sutherland garnered hundreds of film and TV credits alongside star-studded casts.
Among those paying tribute was British actress Dame Helen Mirren, who appeared alongside Sutherland in 2017’s The Leisure Seeker, following their 1990 drama Bethune: The Making Of A Hero.
“Donald Sutherland was one of the smartest actors I ever worked with,” Dame Helen said in a statement given to the PA news agency.
“He had a wonderful enquiring brain, and a great knowledge on a wide variety of subjects.
“He combined this great intelligence with a deep sensitivity, and with a seriousness about his profession as an actor.
“This all made him into the legend of film that he became. He was my colleague and became my friend. I will miss his presence in this world.”
Meanwhile two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas, who starred in 1994 film Disclosure alongside Sutherland and Demi Moore, shared a picture of the pair together on Instagram.
“What a lovely, talented, and curious man. RIP Donald Sutherland,” he wrote.
US star Rob Lowe, who lead the cast of Salem’s Lot in 2004, based on Stephen King’s novel, opposite Sutherland, said “today we lost one of our greatest actors” in a post on X.
“It was my honour to work with him many years ago, and I will never forget his charisma and ability.
“If you want a master class in acting, watch him in Ordinary People”, Lowe said.
Sutherland starred in drama Ordinary People in 1980, which later won four Oscars, including best picture, supporting actor for Timothy Hutton while Robert Redford won the gong for best director.
It came a decade before Sutherland starred in US thriller Backdraft, opposite Robert De Niro, Kurt Russell and William Baldwin.
“One of the most intelligent, interesting and engrossing film actors of all time,” Backdraft director Ron Howard said on X.
“Incredible range, creative courage and dedication to serving the story and the audience with supreme excellence.”
