American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no. RM28. Photo: Robert Mapplethorpe. Caption: Donald Sutherland, 1983.
Canadian actor Donald Sutherland (1935) passed away in Miami, Florida, on 20 June 2024. He rose to fame after starring in films including M*A*S*H (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), Fellini's Casanova (1976), and 1900 (1976). During his long film career, he won two Golden Globe Awards, for the television films Citizen X (1995) and Path to War (2002), and an Emmy Award for the former. In 2017, he received an Honorary Oscar for his contributions to cinema. Sutherland was 88
Donald McNichol Sutherland CC was born in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1935. His parents were Dorothy Isobel (née McNichol) and Frederick McLea Sutherland. His father worked in sales and ran the local gas, electricity, and bus company. Donald obtained his first part-time job, at the age of 14, as a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW. He graduated from Bridgewater High School and then studied at Victoria University, where he met his first wife Lois Hardwick and graduated with a double major in engineering and drama. He changed his mind about becoming an engineer, and left Canada for Britain in 1957, studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After departing the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Sutherland spent a year and a half at the Perth Repertory Theatre in Scotland. In the early to mid-1960s, Sutherland began to gain small roles in British films and TV. He was featured alongside Christopher Lee in horror films such as Castle of the Living Dead (1964) and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965). He also had a supporting role in the Hammer Films production Die! Die! My Darling! (1965), with Tallulah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers. The same year, he appeared in the Cold War classic The Bedford Incident and the TV series Gideon's Way. In 1966, Sutherland appeared on the BBC TV play Lee Oswald-Assassin, playing a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald. Then followed parts in such popular TV series as The Saint (1966-1967) and The Avengers (1967) He landed a role in the film The Dirty Dozen, starring Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson. It was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest-grossing movie of the year and was Sutherland's breakthrough. In 1968, he left London for Hollywood and appeared in two war films, playing the lead role of "Hawkeye" Pierce in MASH (Robert Altman, 1970) and, as hippie tank commander "Oddball" in Kelly's Heroes (1970). Sutherland starred with Gene Wilder in the comedy Start the Revolution Without Me (1970).
Donald Sutherland found himself as a leading man throughout the 1970s. During the filming of the Oscar-winning detective thriller Klute, he had an intimate relationship with co-star Jane Fonda. They went on to co-produce and star together in the anti-Vietnam War documentary F.T.A. (1972), consisting of a series of sketches performed outside army bases in the Pacific Rim and interviews with American troops who were then on active service. A follow-up to their teaming up in Klute, Sutherland, and Fonda performed together in Steelyard Blues (David S. Ward, 1973). Het then played in the Venice-based psychological horror film Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg, 1973), co-starring Julie Christie. he was nominated for his role for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Then followed the war film The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Federico Fellini's Casanova (1976), and the thriller Eye of the Needle (which was filmed on location on the Isle of Mull, West Scotland). His role as the Corpse of Lt. Robert Schmied in the German film End of the Game (Maximilian Schell, 1976). Then he was the ever-optimistic health inspector in the Science Fiction/horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) alongside Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum. Sutherland also had a role as pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), making himself known to younger fans as a result of the movie's popularity. He won acclaim for his performance in the Italian epic 1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976) and as the conflicted father in the Academy Award-winning family drama Ordinary People (1980), alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton.
Some of Donald Sutherland's better-known roles in the 1980s and 1990s were in the South African apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1989), alongside Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon; as a sadistic warden in Lock Up (1989) with Sylvester Stallone; as an incarcerated pyromaniac in the firefighter thriller Backdraft (1990) alongside Kurt Russell and Robert De Niro, as the humanitarian doctor-activist Norman Bethune in Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1992), and as a snobbish New York City art dealer in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), with Stockard Channing and Will Smith. In JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991), he played a mysterious Washington intelligence officer, reputed to have been L. Fletcher Prouty, who spoke of links to the military-industrial complex in the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The following year, he played the role of Merrick in the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), with Kristy Swanson. In 1994, he played the head of a government agency hunting for aliens who take over people's bodies similar to the premise of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the film of Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 book The Puppet Masters. In 1994, Sutherland played a software company's scheming CEO in Barry Levinson's drama Disclosure opposite Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, and in 1995 he was cast as Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock in Wolfgang Petersen's Outbreak. He was later cast in 1996 (for only the second time) with his son Kiefer in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill. Sutherland played an astronaut in Space Cowboys (2000), with co-stars Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, and James Garner. Sutherland was a model for Chris Claremont and John Byrne to create Donald Pierce, the character in the Marvel Comics, whose last name comes from Sutherland's character in the 1970 film M*A*S*H, Hawkeye Pierce.
In more recent years, Donald Sutherland was known for his role as Reverend Monroe in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain (2003), in the remake of The Italian Job (2003), in the TV series Commander in Chief (2005–2006), and as Mr. Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005), starring alongside Keira Knightley. Sutherland starred as Tripp Darling in the prime-time drama series Dirty Sexy Money, and his distinctive voice has also been used in many radio and television commercials. In 2010, he starred alongside an ensemble cast in a TV adaptation of Ken Follett's novel The Pillars of the Earth. Beginning in 2012, Sutherland portrayed President Snow, the main antagonist of The Hunger Games film franchise, in The Hunger Games (2012), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), and Part 2 (2015). His role was well-received by fans and critics. The television program Crossing Lines premiered in 2013. Sutherland, who played the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court named Michel Dorn, was one of only two actors to appear in all episodes across three seasons. Donald Sutherland has been married three times. His first marriage, to Lois Hardwick, lasted from 1959 to 1966. His second marriage, which lasted from 1966 to 1970, was to Shirley Douglas. They have two children, twins Kiefer and Rachel. Donald Sutherland met his current wife, French Canadian actress Francine Racette, on the set of the Canadian pioneer drama Alien Thunder. They married in 1972 and had three sons: Rossif Sutherland, Angus Redford Sutherland, and Roeg Sutherland. His four sons have all been named after directors whom Sutherland has worked with: Kiefer is named after American-born director and writer Warren Kiefer, who, under the assumed name of Lorenzo Sabatini, directed Sutherland in his first feature film, the Italian low-budget horror film Il castello dei morti vivi/Castle of the Living Dead; Roeg is named after director Nicolas Roeg; Rossif is named after French director Frédéric Rossif, and Angus Redford has his middle name after Robert Redford. Donald Sutherland was a Companion of the Order of Canada (CC) since 2019. Donald Sutherland died on 20 June 2024 in Miami at the age of 88 following a long illness.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
