Donald Sutherland, the great actor whose career spanned ‘MASH’ to ‘The Hunger Games,’ dies at 88

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Sutherland, The Canadian actor whose wry and surprisingly unhinged screen presence spanned more than half a century of films, from “MASH” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He was 88 years old.

Sutherland died Thursday in Miami after a long illness, according to a statement from Creative Artists Agency, which represented him.

Kiefer Sutherland He said on X that he believed his father was one of the most important actors in the history of cinema: “He was never intimidated by a role, whether good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and you can never ask for more than that.”

The tall, thin Sutherland, who wore a smile that could be sweet or devilish, was known for such eccentric characters as Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s “MASH,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned professor in ” Animal House”. “

“Donald was a giant, not just physically, but as a talent,” Sutherland’s “MASH” co-star Elliott Gould said in a statement to the Associated Press. many paid tribute. “He was also extremely kind and generous.”

Before embarking on a long career as a respected actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, anti-establishment cinema of the 1970s. He never stopped working, appearing in nearly 200 films and series.

Over the decades, Sutherland has shown his range in more low-key — but still eccentric — roles in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” More recently, he starred the “Hunger Games” films.

A memoir, “Invented but Still True,” is scheduled for November.

“I love working. I love working passionately,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love feeling my hand fit into some other character’s glove. I feel an enormous freedom – time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”

Born in St. John, New Brunswick, Donald McNichol Sutherland was the son of a salesman and a mathematics teacher. Raised in Nova Scotia, he was a disc jockey at his own radio station at age 14.

“When I was 13 or 14, I really thought that everything I felt was wrong and dangerous, and that God was going to kill me for it,” Sutherland told The New York Times in 1981. “My father always said, ‘Keep the open mouth. Shut up, Donnie, and maybe people will think you have character.

Sutherland started out as an engineering student at the University of Toronto, but switched to English and began acting in school theater productions. While studying, she met Lois Hardwick, an aspiring actress. They married in 1959 but divorced seven years later.

After graduating in 1956, Sutherland attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art to study acting. He began appearing in West End plays and on British television. After moving to Los Angeles, a series of war films changed his trajectory.

His breakthrough was “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), in which he played Vernon Pinkley, the psychopath who posed as an officer. 1970 saw the release of the World War II yarns “Kelly’s Heroes” and “MASH”, a smash hit that catapulted Sutherland to stardom.

“There are more challenges in character roles,” Sutherland told The Washington Post in 1970. “There is longevity. A good actor can show a different face in each film and not bore the audience.”

If Sutherland had had his way, Altman would have been fired from “MASH.” He was dissatisfied with the director’s unorthodox and improvisational style. But the film caught on beyond anyone’s expectations.

Sutherland identified with his anti-war message. Outspoken against the Vietnam War, he along with actress Jane Fonda and others founded the Free Theater Associates in 1971. Banned by the Army because of their political views, they performed at venues near military bases in Southeast Asia in 1973.

“I thought I would be part of a revolution that would change cinema and its influence on people,” Sutherland told the Los Angeles Times.

His career as a leading man reached its peak in the 1970s, when he starred in films by the leading directors of the time – even if they didn’t always do his best work with him. Sutherland, who often claimed to consider himself in service of a director’s vision, worked with Federico Fellini (1976’s “Fellini’s Casanova”), Bernardo Bertolucci (1976’s “1900”), Claude Chabrol (1978’s “Blood Relatives “) and John Schlesinger (“The Day of the Grasshopper”, 1975).

One of his best performances was as a detective in Alan Pakula’s “Klute” (1971). During filming he met Fonda, with whom he had a three-year relationship that began at the end of his second marriage to actress Shirley Douglas. He and Douglas divorced in 1971 after having twins: Rachel and Kiefer, named after Warren Kiefer, the writer of Sutherland’s first film, “Castle of the Living Dead.”

Nicolas Roeg’s psychological horror film “Don’t Look Now” (1973) was another high point. Sutherland starred with Julie Christie as a grieving couple who move to Venice after their daughter’s death. The film included a famously expertly edited explicit sex scene.

“Nic and I thought I might die in the process, we were so committed,” Sutherland once said. His admiration for the film and for Roeg was such that he and his next wife, actress Francine Racette, named their first child Roeg.

Sutherland married Racette in 1972 and remained with her. She survives him. They had two other children: Rossif, named after director Frederic Rossif; and Angus Redford, named after Redford.

“Ordinary People” (1980), by Robert Redford, also dealt with the loss of a child. His directorial debut, starring Sutherland as the father of a family torn apart by tragedy, won four Oscars, including best picture.

Sutherland was never nominated for an Oscar, but he received an honorary Oscar in 2017. He won an Emmy in 1995 for the TV movie “Citizen X” and won two Golden Globes for “Citizen X” and the 2003 TV movie “Path to War.”

Sutherland’s New York stage debut in 1981, however, was terrible. He played Humbert Humbert in Edward Albee’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” and the reviews were relentless; closed after a dozen performances. A period of decline followed in the 1980s, with failures such as the 1981 satire “Gas” and the 1984 comedy “Crackers.”

But Sutherland continued to work steadily and increasingly worked in television, most memorably on HBO’s “Path to War,” in which he played President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of defense, Clark Clifford.

After son Kiefer emerged as a star, Sutherland appeared in several films with him, including the 1996 thriller “A Time to Kill” and 2015’s “Forsaken.” But he turned down the chance to play his father in the hit series “ 24”.

To a younger generation, Sutherland was best known as President Snow in the “Hunger Games” franchise, starting with the 2012 original. Sutherland sought out the role.

“The role of the president might have had a line in the script. Maybe two. It didn’t make any difference,” Sutherland told GQ. “I thought it was an incredibly important film and I wanted to be a part of it.”

In his final years, the actor thought incessantly about dying on screen, for real.

“I really hope that in some movie I’m doing I die – but I die, me, Donald – and they can use my funeral and the coffin,” Sutherland told AP. “That would be absolutely ideal. I would appreciate it.

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Associated Press writers Andrew Dalton and Kaitlyn Huamani contributed from Los Angeles.