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Donald Sutherland, the tall, thin, long-faced Canadian actor who became a counterculture icon with such films as “The Dirty Dozen,” “MASH,” “Klute” and “Don’t Look Now” , and who subsequently enjoyed a prolific career. and his extensive career in films like “Ordinary People,” “Without Limits” and “Hunger Games,” died Thursday in Miami after a long illness, CAA confirmed. He was 88 years old.
For more than half a century, the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor has memorably played villains, antiheroes, romantic leads and mentors. His profile has risen over the past decade thanks to his supporting role as the villainous President Snow in “The Hunger Games” franchise.
Most recently, he appeared as Judge Parker in the series “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” and in the series “Swimming With Sharks” in 2022. His other recent recurring roles include the series “Undoing” and “Trust”, in which he played J. . Paul Getty, and presents “Ad Astra” and “The Burnt-Orange Heresy”.
Sutherland won a supporting actor Emmy for HBO’s “Citizen X” in 1995 and was also nominated in 2006 for the Lifetime miniseries “Human Trafficking.”
After what Sutherland called “a meandering little career,” including roles in low-budget horror films like 1963’s “Castle of the Living Dead” and “Die! Die! My Darling! “, he landed a final six role in 1967’s “The Dirty Dozen.”
Sutherland told the Guardian in 2005 that he initially had only one line in the film, until Clint Walker refused to perform a scene requiring him to impersonate a general. According to Sutherland, director Robert Aldrich, who did not know his name, suddenly turned to him and said, “You! With big ears! You do it!”
The wisecracking role was a perfect fit for Sutherland, whose wolfish smile and boyish charm caught the attention of producer Ingo Preminger, who cast him as anti-authoritarian surgeon Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce in the comedy. 1970s hit “MASH”. »
“MASH” made Sutherland and co-star Elliott Gould, who played Captain “Trapper” John, major stars. But traditionally-bound actors struggled to adapt to director Robert Altman’s improvised and often chaotic approach. According to Sutherland, Altman tried to fire him during filming, but Preminger stood his ground.
In an interview with Playboy in 1976, Altman gave a different view, recalling that Sutherland liked his style as a director. “His improvisation was profound,” Altman said. “He’s a hell of an actor.”
Sutherland also co-starred with Gould in the 1971 Alan Arkin-inspired black comedy “Little Murders” and again in director Irvin Kershner’s 1974 dud “SPYS.”
In the 1970 World War II action film, “Kelly’s Heroes,” Sutherland joined Clint Eastwood, playing Sgt. Oddball, an absurdly designed but scene-stealing proto-hippie tank commander. (Sutherland reunited with Eastwood in 2000’s “Space Cowboys,” this time playing a former renowned pilot.)
With 1971’s “Klute,” a thriller/character study directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Jane Fonda, Sutherland became a credible romantic leading man. He plays a troubled detective who falls in love with a call girl (Fonda) whom he protects from a sadistic killer.
Fonda later credited Sutherland for her Oscar-winning Best Actress performance, due to “all the intense feelings I felt” with him.
The two men had a romance at the time and this relationship fueled Sutherland’s anti-war policies. He became involved with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and, with Peter Boyle and Howard Hesseman, Fonda and Sutherland started a traveling revue called FTA (Free the Army, popularly known as F*@k the Army). . The Pentagon tried in vain to keep troops away from the shows; the FBI put Sutherland and Fonda under surveillance.
In Nicholas Roeg’s influential 1973 psychological horror film, “Don’t Look Now,” Sutherland’s intriguing passivity and stripped-down acting style helped highlight Julie Christie’s performance. They depict a grieving married couple who flee England for Venice after the death of their infant daughter.
The film became controversial because of a full-length explicit sex scene between them, edited in a fragmented style. Roeg interrupts their post-coital dressing to go out to dinner as the sequence unfolds. Even in a sex-obsessed age, the scene became – and remains – one of the most memorable ever filmed.
At the height of his success, Sutherland began making eccentric career choices. He turned down John Boorman for “Deliverance” and chose Paul Mazursky’s “Alex in Wonderland” (1970) over Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs.” He starred with Fonda again in “Steelyard Blues” (1973) and played Christ in Dalton Trumbo’s “Johnny Got His Gun” (1971). Both fizzled at the box office.
Sutherland received mixed reviews for his role as a ne’er-do-well in John Schlesinger’s “Day of the Locust” (1975), he played the title character in the 1976 art bomb “Fellini’s Casanova” and a psychopathic fascist in John Schlesinger’s “1900” Bertolucci (1977). He made a memorable appearance in the 1978 hit “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” playing a professor discovered having an affair with a student (Karen Allen). He took a small initial commission for his work instead of an offered percentage of profits. The actor estimated that this choice cost him $14 million.
Sutherland bounced back with 1980’s “Ordinary People,” convincing director Robert Redford to cast him as the grieving father trying to hold his family together after the accidental death of his eldest son. Redford initially offered him the role of psychiatrist which ultimately went to Judd Hirsch.
In the 1981 World War II thriller “Eye of the Needle,” Sutherland gave one of his last romantic performances on the big screen, albeit in the role of a stranded heavy German agent who falls in love with a lonely married woman (Kate Nelligan).
Another career high came in 1998, when Sutherland convinced writer-director Robert Towne to cast him as coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman in “Without Limits,” about the University of California runner. Oregon, Steve Prefontaine (Billy Crudup). He was also memorable in 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice” as Keira Knightley’s father.
Sutherland made a lasting impression in smaller roles, as Mister X, a senior Pentagon official who claims to know why JFK was assassinated, in 1991’s Oliver Stone-directed “JFK.”
Remarkably, Sutherland was never nominated for an Academy Award, although his work in films such as “Ordinary People” and “Without Limits” are often cited by critics as among the best of their respective decades.
Other notable roles include President Snow in “The Hunger Games” (2012) and its sequels; a security hacker in “The Italian Job” (2003); the father in “Six Degrees of Separation” (1993); a sleek safe in “The Great Train Robbery” (1978); and the lead role in Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Sutherland also appeared with his son Kiefer in “A Time to Kill” in 1996. He turned down an offer to play the father of Kiefer’s character, Jack Bauer, in “24,” his son’s hit television series. The two appeared together in the 2014 western “Forsaken.”
In 2014, the actor also starred with Brie Larson in the Indian musical “Basmati Blues”, written and directed by Dan Baron.
Sutherland’s television work includes the episode “The Superlative Seven” of “The Avengers” (1967) and two episodes of “The Saint” (1965, 1966). He played the role of Patrick “Tripp” Darling III in “Dirty Sexy Money” (2007-09) and Nathan Templeton in “Commander in Chief” (2005-06). His work in television miniseries includes 2010’s “Pillars of the Earth,” based on the epic novel by Ken Follett.
In one of his best television roles, Sutherland played Clark Clifford in John Frankenheimer’s “Path to War” (2002). In 1995, he won a supporting actor Emmy for “Citizen X” (HBO).
Born in St. John, Canada, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before landing roles in British TV shows and films such as “The Avengers” and “The Saint.” “The Saint” star and director Roger Moore recommended him to the producers of “The Dirty Dozen” and after the success of that film, he moved to Hollywood.
A private celebration of life will be hosted by the family.
Sutherland is survived by his wife Francine Racette, his sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus and Kiefer, his daughter Rachel and four grandchildren.