Donald Sutherland, a legendary actor who worked in Hollywood for over 60 years, has died at the age of 88. Sutherland's filmography runs deep, from his beginnings in M*A*S*H and The Dirty Dozen to the actor starring as President Snow in The Hunger Games films.
Per Deadline, the actor died on Thursday in Miami after battling a long illness. He is survived by his wife Francine Racette, five children, including Emmy-winning actor Kiefer Sutherland, and four grandchildren.
Shortly after the news broke online, Kiefer Sutherland took to Twitter to share these words in tribute to his father:
With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.
Sutherland was born in New Brunswick, Canada on July 17, 1935, and he spent his early childhood there before moving with his family to Nova Scotia, where he started working at 14 as a news correspondent for a local radio station. He moved to Toronto to get his college education from Victoria University where he double majored in engineering and drama. As we know, it was the latter degree that contributed to his life’s work in movies and television.
The actor struck gold early in his career when he got to be part of 1967’s The Dirty Dozen alongside Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and such. The war flick was a blockbuster, and it led the actor to move from London to Hollywood to pursue his acting career. Lightning struck twice for Sutherland when he led 1970’s M*A*S*H, the hit film that inspired the TV series of the same name.
Then in the 1970s, he went on to star in the beloved detective thriller, Klute, with Jane Fonda, and he was in some of the best horror movies of all time, including 1973’s Don’t Look Now and the first of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies. Throughout his career, he worked with tons of huge names like Sean Connery for 1978’s The First Great Train Robbery or Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon in 1989’s A Dry White Season.
He also notably starred with his son Kiefer for 1989’s A Time To Kill. And, he worked alongside Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones and James Garner for 2000’s Space Cowboys along with being part of the all-star casts of 2003’s The Italian Job and 2005’s Pride & Prejudice.
When it came to finding his role in The Hunger Games movies, Sutherland read the script and it “captured his passion” so much that he wrote a letter to its director in hopes of nabbing the role of President Snow. He went on to play the role for four movies before Tom Blyth portrayed the tyrant as a teenager for last year’s prequel. In 2017, the actor received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy, which his Hunger Games co-star Jennifer Lawrence presented to him.
In recent years, the actor has continued to act, such as in the 2022 Stephen King adaptation of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and Paramount+’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves.
Here at CinemaBlend, we celebrate the actor’s great body of work and send condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and fans. May he rest in peace.
