Donald Sutherland passes at 88
Donald Sutherland, the beloved actor who acted in dozens of films, including The Dirty Dozen, MASH, and Klute, as well as Animal House and Ordinary People, Pride & Prejudice, and The Hunger Games franchise, and earned an Emmy for Citizen X, died on Thursday in Miami after a long illness. He was 88.
The 2017 Honorary Oscar recipient is also the father of Kiefer Sutherland, who won Emmys for 24 and Designated Survivor, and Roeg Sutherland, a senior CAA Media Finance executive. CAA confirmed the news with Deadline.
In some of his most well-known roles, he perfected a laconic, wry, and dead-serious delivery as such characters as the cool-headed amateur murder investigator John Klute, opposite Jane Fonda's terrified, erratic call girl Bree Daniels, in Klute; as the Hawkeye Pierce in the film MASH, where he played opposite Elliott Gould's cut-up Trapper John; and in Nicolas Reog's Don't Look Now as skeptical John Baxter, who does not believe the claims of wife Laura (Julie Christie).
In one early change-of-pace role, Sutherland played a vicious fascist in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1976 epic 1900, in which his character joyously swings a toddler by the heels and bangs his head against a wall.
Donald Sutherland, born on July 17, 1935 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, has over 200 film and television credits spanning more than 60 years, including cameo appearances on episodes of 1960s shows such as Suspense, The Avengers, Court Martial, and The Odd Man, as well as last year's Paramount+ drama Bass Reeves. His big break in movies came with Robert Aldrich's star-studded 1967 World War II film The Dirty Dozen, where he played Vernon Pinkley alongside Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, and others. It was a box office success and is still regarded as a great American war film.
His next major part was as Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in Robert Altman's 1970 Korean War dramedy MASH. The alternately frightening and amusing picture received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, for Ring Lardner Jr.'s incisive script, and inspired the 1972-83 CBS sitcom Hawkeye, in which Alda Alda starred.
Sutherland followed that with another star-studded war film, Kelly's Heroes (1970), in which he played Sgt. Oddball alongside Clint Eastwood, Don Rickles, Savalas, and others. That led to one of his most memorable performances, in the 1971 Alan J. Pakula crime drama Klute. He played John Klute, a New York detective recruited to investigate a missing chemical company boss, opposite Fonda. Fonda won her first Oscar for the role, while Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis were nominated for Original Screenplay.
Sutherland's next big film was Nicolas Roeg's psychological thriller Don't Look Now, which he followed with the 1974 international spy comedy S*P*Y*S, reuniting with Gould, and 1975's Hollywood-set Day of the Locust. He starred alongside William Atherton, Karen Black, and Burgess Meredith as accountant Homer Simpson, who covets Black's promising actress Faye Greener.
With his film career in full swing, Sutherland starred in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), alongside Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, and then had a minor role in the 1977 John Landis-directed farce The Kentucky Fried Movie, written by future Airplane! filmmakers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker.
Sutherland earned a Golden Globe for his role in the television film Path to War, as well as an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal in the miniseries Citizen X. His vast television credits include The Undoing, Trust, Dirty Sexy Money, and The Pillars of the Earth, among many more.
Sutherland is left by his wife Francine Racette, sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus, and Kiefer; daughter Rachel; and four grandkids. The family plans to hold a private celebration of life.