American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no. RM28. Photo: Robert Mapplethorpe. Caption: Donald Sutherland, 1983.
Swiss postcard by News Productions, Baulmes, no. 55592. Photo: Michelangelo Durazzo / ANA, Paris. Caption: Federico Fellini during the shooting of the film Casanova.
Casanova
Donald McNichol Sutherland 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, he began to gain small roles in British films and TV. He was featured alongside Christopher Lee in Horror films such as Il castello dei morti vivi/Castle of the Living Dead (Warren Kiefer, Luciano Ricci, 1964) and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (Freddie Francis, 1965). He also had a supporting role in the Hammer Films production Fanatic/Die! Die! My Darling! (Silvio Narizzano, 1965), with Tallulah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers. The same year, he appeared in the Cold War classic The Bedford Incident (James B. Harris, 1965). 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 Gideon's Way (1966), The Saint (1966-1967) and The Avengers (1967).
Donald Sutherland landed the role of a lame-brained convict in the exciting action film The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967), starring Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson. It was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1967, MGM's highest-grossing movie of the year and Sutherland's breakthrough. In 1968, he left London for Hollywood and appeared in two war films, playing the lead role of 'Hawkeye' Pierce in M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970) and, as hippie tank commander 'Oddball' in Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 1970). Sutherland starred with Gene Wilder in the comedy Start the Revolution Without Me (Bud Yorkin, 1970).
Sutherland found himself as a leading man throughout the 1970s. During the filming of the Oscar-winning detective thriller Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971), 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). He 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 (John Sturges, 1976), Il Casanova di Federico Fellini/Casanova (Federico Fellini, 1976), and the thriller Eye of the Needle (Richard Marquand, 1981), 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 Der Richter und sein Henker/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 (Philip Kaufman, 1978) alongside Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum. Sutherland also had a role as pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in National Lampoon's Animal House/Animal House (John Landis, 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/Novecento (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976) and as the conflicted father in the Academy Award-winning family drama Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980), alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton.
Promotion card by the American Film Institute, no. 3333. Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould in M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970).
The head of a government agency hunting for aliens
Some of Donald Sutherland's better-known roles in the 1980s and 1990s were in the South African apartheid drama A Dry White Season (Euzhan Palcy, 1989), alongside Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon; as a sadistic warden in Lock Up (John Flynn, 1989) with Sylvester Stallone; as an incarcerated pyromaniac in the firefighter thriller Backdraft (Ron Howard, 1990) alongside Kurt Russell and Robert De Niro, as the humanitarian doctor-activist Norman Bethune in Bethune: the Making of a Hero (Bethune: The Making of a Hero, 1992), and as a snobbish New York City art dealer in Six Degrees of Separation (Fred Schepisi, 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 (Fran Rubel Kuzui, 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 The Puppet Masters(Stuart Ortme, 1994), based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 book. In 1994, Sutherland played a software company's scheming CEO in Barry Levinson's drama Disclosure opposite Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. He was cast as Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock in Wolfgang Petersen's Outbreak (1995). For only the second time, he was cast with his son Kiefer Sutherland in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill (1996). He won two Golden Globe Awards, for the television films Citizen X (Chris Gerolmo, 1995) and Path to War (John Frankenheimer, 2002), and an Emmy Award for the former.
Donald Sutherland played an astronaut in Space Cowboys (Clint Eastwood, 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 M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970), Hawkeye Pierce. In more recent years, Sutherland was known for his role as Reverend Monroe in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003), in the remake of The Italian Job (F. Gary Gray, 2003), in the TV series Commander in Chief (2005–2006), and as Mr. Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005), starring alongside Keira Knightley. Sutherland starred as Tripp Darling in the prime-time drama series Dirty Sexy Money (2007-2009), 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 (Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, 2010). Beginning in 2012, Sutherland portrayed President Snow, the main antagonist of The Hunger Games film franchise, in The Hunger Games (Francis Lawrence, 2012), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, 2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (Francis Lawrence, 2014), and Part 2 (Francis Lawrence, 2015). His role was well-received by fans and critics. In the television program Crossing Lines (2013-2015), Sutherland played Michel Dorn, the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court. He was one of only two actors to appear in all episodes across three seasons. He also played a supporting role in the Science Fiction film Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) starring Brad Pitt. His final film was the Horror film Mr. Harrigan's Phone (John Lee Hancock, 2022), based on Stephen King's short story of the same name.
Donald Sutherland was 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. 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.
French postcard in the Collection Cinéma Couleur by Editions La Malibran, Nancy, no. MC 40. Donald Sutherland in Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (Federico Fellini, 1976).
Italian postcard in the Federico Fellini series by Gruppo Prospettive. Photo: F. Pinna / RAM Studio. Donald Sutherland in Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (Federico Fellini, 1976).
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
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