BTN News: Canadian legend and actor Donald Sutherland, known for playing roles in MASH, Klute, and The Hunger Games, died at the age of 88. News of his passing was confirmed on social media by his son, Kiefer Sutherland, who posted a touching tribute to honor the life of his father.
A six-decade career
Donald McNichol Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, on July 17, 1935, the son of a sales manager and a math teacher. Sutherland was born in Nova Scotia, where he recognised acting as his passion while partaking in local theatre and honed his skills further at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After a series of small British TV roles and some notable hardships on his way to the top, his big break was coming in 1967 war film The Dirty Dozenas Vernon Pinkley.
Rise to Fame with MASH
The role of Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s MASH (1970) brought Sutherland attention, while he retained a committed following with such appearances as the sex-repulsed father in Don’t Look Now. The Korean War-era movie, based on a chapter in the life at a military field hospital there, struck a chord with audiences not least because of its anti-war leanings (a sentiment Sutherland said he could whole-heartedly relate to).
Variety Of Roles & Political Activities
Because he stood well over 6 feet and had a deep, resonant voice and authoritative bearing, playing villains was easy for him to make the change to character actor and led to his amazing career. He played Jane Fonda’s leading man in Klute and starred in romances with Julie Christie. In the 1970s, the couple co-founded the politically-charged Free Theater Associates delivering plays near military bases in Southeast Asia (in which they were living).
Later Career and Legacy
Sutherland went on to play difficult roles such as a doting father in Robert Redford’s directorial debut Ordinary People in 1980. A few decades later, he would wow a new generation as the despotic Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games series which he pursued.
Sutherland was recognized with numerous honors for his work, ultimately receiving a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 2017. In his acceptance speech, he said: “I wish I could say thank to all of the characters that I’ve played, thank them for informing my life.
Remembering a Legend
Kiefer Sutherland summed up his father’s love of acting with a tribute on social media: “He never let the clumsiness of interpretation to the screen deter the heart he put into it. He did what he loved and loved what he did, and you can never ask for more than that. Sutherland left an indelible mark on this world of film and continued to be the actor that he always was up until now.
