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 Obituary: Donald Sutherland

With nearly 200 credits to his name and a towering height of 6ft 3in, the late Donald Sutherland cast both a literal and figurative shadow over the entertainment industry for almost 50 years.

Born in July 1935 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Donald Sutherland initially pursued a career in radio as a news reporter and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in engineering. However, the allure of acting soon drew him away from his native Canada to London in 1957. After a less fulfilling period studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), he found his stride during an 18-month tenure at the Perth Repertory Theatre in Scotland. Reflecting on this time, he told the Daily Record in 2013, "It was the first theatre I ever played where the audience actually laughed when I was being funny."

"The response I received from audiences gave me confidence and a sense of security for the first time."

Small roles in British film and television soon followed, including appearances alongside Christopher Lee in the horror films *Castle of the Living Dead* and *Dr. Terror's House of Horrors*. The former was directed by Warren Kiefer, whose surname Sutherland later gave to his eldest son, Kiefer, born shortly thereafter. During this period, Sutherland also appeared in episodes of *The Saint*, with one episode directed by its star, Roger Moore.

The success of that episode led to Sutherland landing his breakthrough role in the World War II action film *The Dirty Dozen*. Initially, he was not the first choice to play the irreverent soldier Vernon Pinkley, one of twelve outcasts chosen by Lee Marvin's character for a suicide mission behind enemy lines. However, director Robert Aldrich was so impressed by Sutherland's performance in a scene where Pinkley impersonates a general that he expanded the role. Sutherland's standout performance in *The Dirty Dozen* subsequently earned him a leading role in *M*A*S*H*, a satirical comedy about medics in the Korean War.

His character, Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce Jr., used insubordination and gallows humor to cope with the daily grind of combat and carnage. Sutherland's unique presence also landed him the role of the aptly named Sergeant Oddball in *Kelly's Heroes*. In contrast, he delivered a more restrained performance in 1971's *Klute*, playing a detective whose search for a missing person is aided by a high-priced call girl. Jane Fonda, Sutherland's co-star in Alan J. Pakula's film, won an Oscar for her role.

The politically active couple dated for two years, but the romance did not last. "It was a wonderful relationship right up to the point we lived together," he later remarked. In 1973, Sutherland starred in another sexually charged thriller, *Don’t Look Now*, directed by Nicolas Roeg, which took him to Venice. The film featured a sex scene so explicit that it sparked rumors he and co-star Julie Christie had actually had sex, a claim Sutherland later denied.

Continuing his collaborations with auteurs, Sutherland portrayed a sadistic fascist in Bernardo Bertolucci's *1900* and took on the title role in Federico Fellini's *Casanova*. Fellini famously described Sutherland as "a sperm-filled waxwork with the eyes of a masturbator." In the 1970s, Sutherland also played an IRA member in *The Eagle Has Landed*, a pot-smoking college professor in *National Lampoon's Animal House*, and led the 1978 remake of *Invasion of the Body Snatchers*.

The 1980s saw Sutherland portraying the father of a suicidal teenager in Robert Redford's Oscar-winning *Ordinary People*, a British sergeant major in Hugh Hudson's *Revolution*, and appearing alongside Kate Bush in her 1985 music video for "Cloudbusting." Sutherland maintained a prolific output in the 1990s with roles in *Backdraft*, *JFK*, *Six Degrees of Separation*, and *A Time to Kill*, the latter of which also featured his son Kiefer, who had made his screen debut in 1983's *Max Dugan Returns*, another of his father's films.

In the 2000s, Sutherland transitioned to television, appearing in series such as *Dirty Sexy Money* and *Commander-in-Chief*. More recently, his role as the venal President Snow in the *Hunger Games* franchise introduced him to a new generation of fans. "I hadn't even heard of the [Suzanne Collins] books, but it became patently apparent to me that this was something," he told *The Telegraph* in 2015. "It was the first thing I'd read in years that could become a creative political stimulus for young people."

Sutherland was married three times. His first marriage, to former child actress Lois Hardwick, lasted from 1959 to 1966. His second marriage, to actress Shirley Douglas, lasted from 1966 to 1971 and produced two children, son Kiefer and daughter Rachel. With his third wife, Canadian actress Francine Racette, he had three sons: Roeg, Rossif, and Angus.

Although Sutherland was never nominated for an Oscar, he received an honorary Academy Award in 2017. His only British Academy Award (BAFTA) came in 1974, in recognition of his work in *Don't Look Now* and *Steelyard Blues*.