Donald Sutherland Dies at 88
Donald Sutherland, the legendary actor whose career spanned seven decades, has died. He was 88.
Sutherland’s death was confirmed to the media by CAA, who attributed his death to a long illness. The specifics of the illness were not disclosed.
The Canadian actor received numerous accolades during his career, including a Primetime Emmy in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for his performance as Mikhail Fetisov in Citizen X. Notably, Sutherland was never nominated for an Academy Award, but he went on to receive an Academy Honorary Award in 2017 for his work in film.
His son and actor Kiefer Sutherland paid tribute to his father via social media writing, “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.”
Sutherland’s career was truly remarkable. He was in countless films and television shows and played a wide variety of characters. Sutherland was part of the ensemble cast of 1967’s The Dirty Dozen, which featured Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes and Telly Savalas. In 1970, he stared as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H.
Sutherland had a number of notable credits in the 1970s including Klute, Fellini’s Casanova, Animal House and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He was seemingly fearless when it came to his role choices. That fearlessness was on full display in 1980’s Ordinary People alongside Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton.
That fearlessness carried Sutherland into the 1990’s and the 2000’s with a diverse collection of credits, including 1991’s Backdraft and JFK, 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation and 2003’s The Italian Job. Of course, Millennial and Gen Z may best know Sutherland as President Snow from The Hunger Games franchise.
Sutherland told GQ in 2014 that he had read the script of The Hunger Games. He hadn’t read the book series, nor was he aware of it. Regardless, he wrote a letter expressing his desire to play President Snow. Sutherland said, “I thought it was an incredibly important film, and I wanted to be a part of it. I thought it could wake up an electorate that had been dormant since the ’70s.”
