Donald Sutherland, the enigmatic actor whose lengthy career encompassed films including “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Hunger Games,” has died, his son said Thursday. He was 88.
“With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away,” actor Kiefer Sutherland wrote on X.
The elder Sutherland had a distinctive look — and piercing eyes — that brought a depth and mystery to the huge range of roles he inhabited over more than half a century on the big screen.
One of Canada’s most famous sons, he played dashing leading men as well as antiheroes and villains, most recently making a name among a new generation of fans as the evil President Snow in “The Hunger Games” franchise.
“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,” wrote Kiefer Sutherland.
Reaction to the Emmy and Golden Globe-winner’s death was swift, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailing his unique talents.
“I had the opportunity when I was much younger to meet Donald Sutherland, and even as a young man who hadn’t had a full exposure to the depth of brilliance of Donald Sutherland, I was deeply, deeply star struck,” he told a press conference.
“He was a man with a strong presence, a brilliance in his craft, and truly, truly, a great Canadian artist, and he will be deeply missed.”
After what he himself termed a “meandering” start to his acting career, Donald Sutherland came to prominence in Robert Aldrich’s “The Dirty Dozen,” where 12 convicts are tasked with carrying out what appears to be a suicide mission in occupied France.
Starring alongside luminaries such as Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin and Telly Savalas, Sutherland’s impish charms caught the attention of producers of “M*A*S*H.”
Though set in the Korean War, the 1970 film was widely seen as a sophisticated satire on the Vietnam War.
His casting opposite Elliott Gould turned Sutherland into a household name in 1970s America, and opened the door to a durable career that would see him work with some of the biggest names in show business.
They included Jane Fonda, with whom he starred in 1971’s “Klute,” in which he played a detective who falls for the call girl he is supposed to be protecting.
Fonda won an Oscar for her performance, which she credited to her intense feelings for Sutherland, with whom she was in a relationship at the time.
Their off-screen chemistry brought Sutherland into her pacifist orbit, and he became active in anti-Vietnam War circles.
The pair put together a travelling revue, which irked the US government and landed them both under FBI surveillance.
