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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Friday 21 June 2024
Donald Sutherland, the towering actor whose career spanned

‘M.A.S.H.’ to ‘Hunger Games,’ dies at 88

By JAKE COYLE ford.
AP Film Writer Robert Redford’s “Ordinary
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald People” (1980) also dealt with
Sutherland, the Canadian the loss of a child. His direc-
actor whose wry, arrest- torial debut, starring Suther-
ingly off-kilter screen pres- land as the father of a family
ence spanned more than destroyed by tragedy, won
half a century of films from four Oscars, including best
“M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger picture.
Games,” has died. He was 88. Sutherland was never nom-
Sutherland died Thursday inated for an Academy
in Miami after a long illness, Award but received an
according to a statement honorary Oscar in 2017. He
from Creative Artists Agency, did win an Emmy in 1995 for
which represented him. the TV film “Citizen X” and
Kiefer Sutherland said on X won two Golden Globes for
he believed his father was “Citizen X” and the 2003 TV
one of the most important film “Path to War.”
actors in the history of film: Sutherland’s New York stage
“Never daunted by a role, debut in 1981, though, went
good, bad or ugly. He loved terribly. He played Humbert
what he did and did what he Humbert in Edward Albee’s
loved, and one can never adaptation of Vladimir
ask for more than that.” Actor Donald Sutherland appears at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Nabokov’s “Lolita,” and
The tall and gaunt Suther- Hills, Calif., on Oct. 13, 2017. Associated Press the reviews were merciless;
land, who flashed a grin that it closed after a dozen per-
could be sweet or diabolical, wick, Donald McNichol “There is more challenge in (1978’s “Blood Relatives”) formances. A down period in
was known for offbeat char- Sutherland was the son of a character roles,” Sutherland and John Schlesinger (1975’s the ‘80s followed, with failures
acters like Hawkeye Pierce in salesman and a mathemat- told The Washington Post in “The Day of the Locust”). like the 1981 satire “Gas” and
Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” ics teacher. Raised in Nova 1970. “There’s longevity. A One of his finest perfor- the 1984 comedy “Crackers.”
the hippie tank commander Scotia, he was a disc jockey good character actor can mances came as a detec- But Sutherland continued to
in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the with his own radio station at show a different face in every tive in Alan Pakula’s “Klute” work steadily and increasing-
stoned professor in “Animal age 14. film and not bore the public.” (1971). During filming he met ly worked in television, most
House.” “When I was 13 or 14, I re- If Sutherland had had his Fonda, with whom he had memorably in HBO’s “Path
“Donald was a giant, not ally thought everything I felt way, Altman would have a three-year relationship to War,” in which he played
only physically but as a tal- was wrong and dangerous, been fired from “M.A.S.H.” that began at the end of President Lyndon Johnson’s
ent,” Sutherland’s “M.A.S.H.” and that God was going to He was unhappy with the his second marriage to ac- defense secretary, Clark Clif-
co-star Elliott Gould said in a kill me for it,” Sutherland told director’s unorthodox, impro- tor Shirley Douglas. He and ford.
statement to The Associated The New York Times in 1981. visational style. But the film Douglas divorced in 1971 af- After son Kiefer emerged as
Press as many paid tribute. “My father always said, ‘Keep caught on beyond anyone’s ter having twins: Rachel and a star, Sutherland appeared
“He was also enormously kind your mouth shut, Donnie, and expectations. Kiefer, who was named after in numerous films with him,
and generous.” maybe people will think you Sutherland identified with its Warren Kiefer, the writer of including the 1996 thriller “A
Before transitioning into a have character.’” anti-war message. Outspo- Sutherland’s first film, “Castle Time to Kill” and 2015’s “For-
long career as a respected Sutherland began as an engi- ken against the Vietnam War, of the Living Dead.” saken.” But he turned down
character actor, Sutherland neering student at the Univer- he along with actress Jane Nicolas Roeg’s psychologi- the chance to play the father
epitomized the unpredict- sity of Toronto but switched Fonda and others founded cal horror film “Don’t Look on the hit series “24.”
able, antiestablishment cin- to English and started acting the Free Theater Associates Now” (1973) was another To a younger generation,
ema of the 1970s. He never in school theatrical produc- in 1971. Banned by the Army high point. Sutherland starred Sutherland was most famil-
stopped working, appearing tions. While studying, he met because of their political with Julie Christie as a griev- iar as President Snow in “The
in nearly 200 films and series. Lois Hardwick, an aspiring ac- views, they performed in ing couple who move to Hunger Games” franchise
Over the decades, Suther- tress. They married in 1959 but venues near military bases Venice after their daughter’s beginning with the 2012
land showed his range in divorced seven years later. in Southeast Asia in 1973. death. The film included a original. Sutherland sought
more buttoned-down but After graduating in 1956, “I thought I was going to famous, explicit sex scene, out the part.
still eccentric roles in Robert Sutherland attended the be part of a revolution that artfully edited. “The role of the president had
Redford’s “Ordinary People” London Academy of Music was going to change movies “Nic and I thought that maybe a line in the script.
and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” and Dramatic Art to study and its influence on people,” maybe I would die in the Maybe two. Didn’t make any
More, recently, he starred acting. He began appearing Sutherland told the Los An- process of it, so much were difference,” Sutherland told
in the “Hunger Games” films. in West End plays and British geles Times. we committed,” Sutherland GQ. “I thought it was an in-
A memoir, “Made Up, But television. After a move to His career as a leading man once said. His admiration for credibly important film, and
Still True,” is due out in No- Los Angeles, a series of war peaked in the 1970s, when the film and Roeg was such I wanted to be a part of it.”
vember. films changed his trajectory. he starred in films by the that he and his next wife, In his final years, the nonstop
“I love to work. I passionately His breakthrough was “The era’s top directors even if actress Francine Racette, actor mused about dying on-
love to work,” Sutherland told Dirty Dozen” (1967), in which they didn’t always do their named their first-born child screen, for real.
Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love he played Vernon Pinkley, best work with him. Suther- Roeg. “I’m really hoping that in
to feel my hand fit into the the officer-impersonating land, who frequently said Sutherland married Racette some movie I’m doing, I
glove of some other char- psychopath. 1970 saw the he considered himself at the in 1972 and remained with die — but I die, me, Donald

acter. I feel a huge freedom release of the World War II service of a director’s vision, her. She survives him. They — and they’re able to use
time stops for me. I’m not as yarn “Kelly’s Heroes” and worked with Federico Fellini had two other children: Ros- my funeral and the coffin,”
crazy as I used to be, but I’m “M.A.S.H.,” a smash hit that (1976’s “Fellini’s Casanova”), sif, named after the director Sutherland told the AP. “That
still a little crazy.” catapulted Sutherland to Bernardo Bertolucci (1976’s Frederic Rossif; and Angus would be absolutely ideal. I
Born in St. John, New Bruns- stardom. “1900”), Claude Chabrol Redford, named after Red- would love that.”q