Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, best known for his roles in M*A*S*H, The Hunger Games, Animal House, and The Dirty Dozen died Thursday at the age of 88.
Sutherland was known for his versatility on screen, offering serious deliveries in dramas, while also being able to take on hilarious roles in some legendary comedies.
Over his six-decade career, he won numerous awards from Emmys and Academy Awards to Critics Choice and Golden Globes, as well as being the Honorary Oscar recipient in 2017.
Sutherland’s body of work includes some 200 film and TV credits, as well as a short stint on Broadway.
He also is the father of Emmy-winning Kiefer Sutherland, best known for his leading role on the television series 24.
“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. 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 in a social media post.
Born in 1935, in Saint John, N.B., Sutherland’s first big break in acting came with a role in 1967 star-packed World War II drama The Dirty Dozen, directed by Robert Aldric.
Sutherland played a felon named Vernon Pinkley, alongside Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas and others.
The film was both a critical and commercial success and is still hailed as a seminal American war movie today.
He would go on to star in another prominent war movie three years later with Kelly’s Heroes, which also had an outstanding cast that included Clint Eastwood and Don Rickles.
When he wasn’t doing dramas, he played in comedies like The Kentucky Fried Movie, written by the creators of Airplane!
To give an example of Sutherland’s range and tenacious work ethic, in 1978 he starred in three movies that would have to be shelved in different sections at the local video store: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a horror-thriller, the iconic comedy Animal House and The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery.
Sutherland had a string of comedies in the late seventies before putting on his dramatic hat again to star in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People, which won four Oscars in 1980, including Best Picture.
Sutherland appeared in Oliver Stone’s 1991 drama JFK. While he only makes a cameo in the otherwise three-hour film, it’s arguably the most memorable scene.
He also played the villain in The Hunger Games franchise, starring in all three films.
Sutherland’s legacy in tinsel town was cemented in 2011, after receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
“Retirement for an actor is death,” Sutherland told the Hollywood Reporter at the time. “My work will continue until I die.”
He continued to act up until last year.
He died in Miami after suffering from a long illness. He is survived by his wife Francine, his five children and four grandchildren.
