RIP Donald Sutherland (88), 1935-2024

[Astronuc]

Actor Donald Sutherland, star of films including The Hunger Games and Don't Look Now, has died (June 20, 2024) at 88 after a long illness.
His son, Kiefer, announced his father's death in a statement.
"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," he said. "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 starred in films including The Dirty Dozen, MASH and Klute.
One of the Canadian actor's breakout roles was as Hawkeye Pierce, a surgeon in the 1970 movie MASH, a comedy about medics in the Korean War.
Sutherland has almost 200 credits to his name.
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Sutherland started as a radio news reporter before leaving Canada to travel to London in 1957. There, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
He then took on small roles in British film and television.
Sutherland starred in The Dirty Dozen, a World War II action film that premiered in 1967.
His off-kilter presence saw him land another war film role as the appropriately named Sergeant Oddball, in Kelly's Heroes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9rrvdq3g9zo

He portrayed many interesting and colorful characters.

 

[fresh_42]

I remember an old movie I saw him in. I think it was a French production because it was a bit surrealistic. I liked him ever since. I tried, but I couldn't find it on the large list of movies he starred in.

 

[Klystron]

Willy Mays yesterday, Donald Sutherland today. Despite admiring Alan Alda, Sutherland owns the role of Hawkeye Pierce. It's as if Hooker wrote the character, a fast-talking surgeon from New England, for the off-beat Canadian actor to bring to the screen.

 

[Klystron]

I remember an old movie I saw him in. I think it was a French production because it was a bit surrealistic. I liked him ever since. I tried, but I couldn't find it on the large list of movies he starred in.

I thought I saw Sutherland in an old Alain Delon film, perhaps uncredited. If Italian film, we have Fellini's Casanova.

 

[fresh_42]

I thought I saw Sutherland in an old Alain Delon film, perhaps uncredited. If Italian film, we have Fellini's Casanova.

Maybe. Italian could have been. But my memory - not that people's memory was generally reliable - there haven't been wigs as on the pictures on IMDB.

 

[fresh_42]

And wasn't there that movie with Kiefer where he escaped to Mexico on a runaway locomotive at the end?

I only remember that I laughed a lot.

 

[Klystron]

Maybe. Italian could have been. But my memory - not that people's memory was generally reliable - there haven't been wigs as on the pictures on IMDB.

Along with memory differences there can be several versions and releases of a film. I watched many European films as a child broadcast in SF Bay Area in black and white, recut for television. Film titles and even actor's names often changed, not to mention aliases and uncredited roles.

 

[phinds]

Sutherland owns the role of Hawkeye Pierce. It's as if Hooker wrote the character, a fast-talking surgeon from New England, for the off-beat Canadian actor to bring to the screen.

Absolutely. LOVED him in that.

 

[jack action]

I just bought stamps with his portrait.

 

[Frabjous]

Kelly’s Heroes

 

[mcastillo356]

The eye of the needle. I saw that movie in Los Angeles, Raiders of the lost arc first appearance released at the same time on the other screen at that place.
Best wishes!

 

[pinball1970]

First film I saw him was probably "Dr Terror's House of Horrors," A series of short horror stories.
His status in the film was "with..."

 

[robphy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers_(1978_film)

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/donald-sutherland-invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-ending-scream

 

[pinball1970]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers_(1978_film)

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/donald-sutherland-invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-ending-scream
View attachment 347291

Scared the hell out of me.

As did this...

 

[pinball1970]

I remember an old movie I saw him in. I think it was a French production because it was a bit surrealistic. I liked him ever since. I tried, but I couldn't find it on the large list of movies he starred in.

I had a quick search but only found "Don't Look Now" in French. Do you have a rough year?

 

[fresh_42]

I had a quick search but only found "Don't Look Now" in French. Do you have a rough year?

My memory of it is so poor, that I'm not even sure it was him. I would guess 70s or early 80s. If I had to guess, I would say he played a doctor in a wheelchair but I wouldn't put money on it.

Is there a list of movies he starred in together with Kiefer?

 

[jack action]

Is there a list of movies he starred in together with Kiefer?

The two have wanted to work together for decades. Kiefer Sutherland has a blink-or-miss part in his father’s 1983 comedy, “Max Dugan Returns,” and the two starred in 1996’s “A Time to Kill,” but they never shared screen time.

Until now.

The Sutherlands play an estranged father and son in the western “Forsaken,” [2015] which opens Friday in theaters as well as being available on video on demand.

 

[Klystron]

I first saw Sutherland opposite intense actors such as Clint Eastwood (Kelley's Heroes 1970) and Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen 1967). Ernie Borgnine and Charles Bronson costar. Sutherland holds his own with wit and a dry whistle. Did Donald borrow that cheery whistle from Harpo Marx?

As shown in earlier posts, no better homage than that brilliant final scene in Leonard Nimoy's version of "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" (1978). The penultimate scene where Sutherland reveals his allegiance to the hive-mind with an open mouth hissing scream and accusatory pointing finger, paints an action and actor with a light that transcends the original story.

 

[PeroK]

The last thing I saw him in was Trust, where he played the billionaire John Paul Getty, whose grandson was kidnapped in Italy in 1973.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(American_TV_series)

The acting was superb - Sutherland, Hilary Swank and Brendan Fraser in particular. Ultimately, however, the screenwriters and director didn't sufficiently trust the power of the story or the actors and it descended into a fantastic caricature of the true story. For example, the series featured ten essentially gratuitous murders; a "superhuman" bad guy; and self-contradictory plot twists. The most ludicrous invention was that the kidnapped grandson had cut off his own ear!

Everything I dislike about modern films.