Canadian actor Donald Sutherland has died at the age of 88. His son Kiefer Sutherland announced this on Thursday on X. Donald Sutherland appeared in film classics such as “The Dirty Dozen,” “The Gondolas in Black” and “Casanova,” and is best known to younger audiences for “The Hunger Games.” In total, he acted in around 200 films and series and worked with a number of famous directors, including Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini and Clint Eastwood. In 2017, he was awarded an honorary Oscar, but he never won a regular Oscar.
Donald Sutherland – a physical phenomenon alone
Sutherland comes from the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick. He had a childhood marked by illness, suffering from polio, hepatitis and rheumatic fever. “One of my legs is a little shorter, but I survived,” he told Esquire magazine many years later. The Canadian grew to an imposing figure of 1.93 meters tall, but always mocked his appearance. “I hate my ears, I have a prominent chin, bulging eyes and a horse grin,” he once described himself.
Nevertheless, Sutherland decided early on to pursue a career as an actor. After studying theater and engineering in Toronto, he moved to London at the age of 22 to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. By the mid-1960s, he was already appearing in British cult series such as “The Avengers” and “Simon Templar.”
Active into old age
Sutherland’s first major cinematic success came in Robert Aldrich’s war drama “The Dirty Dozen” in 1967, in which he played alongside stars such as Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin and Telly Savalas. This was followed by further successful roles as a rebellious medical officer in Robert Altman’s anti-war satire “M*A*S*H” (1970) and as a private detective in “Klute” (1971). He was also in a relationship with his partner from this thriller, Jane Fonda, for a while. The two also joined forces to protest against the Vietnam War.
According to critics, Sutherland gave one of his most striking performances as a character actor in the horror classic “The Gondolas in Black” (1973). In the 1970s, he also played under director Bertolucci in the epic “1900” and took on the title role in Fellini’s “Casanova”.
Iconic role as quasi-dictator in “The Hunger Games”
As a man of boundless creative energy, Sutherland remained active well into old age. In the fantasy film series “The Hunger Games,” he impressed as a tyrannical ruler of a post-apocalyptic America who forces young people to take part in warlike competitions.
Aging, Sutherland said in the 2011 “Esquire” interview, is like “a new career – only it’s not a career you chose yourself.” And the legendary actor also spoke about dying back then: Death would be “a little lonely journey,” he predicted.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
