NEW YORK — Donald Sutherland, the Canadian actor whose wry, arrestingly off-kilter display screen presence spanned greater than part a century of flicks from “M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He used to be 88.
Sutherland died Thursday in Miami later a protracted problem, consistent with a observation from Ingenious Artists Company, which represented him.
Kiefer Sutherland stated on X he believed his father used to be one of the vital noteceable actors within the historical past of movie: “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.”
The imposing and gaunt Sutherland, who flashed a smile that may be candy or diabolical, used to be identified for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned educator in “Animal House.”
“Donald used to be a vast, now not most effective bodily however as a ability,” Sutherland’s “M.A.S.H.” co-star Elliott Gould said in a statement to The Associated Press as many paid tribute. “He was also enormously kind and generous.”
Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s. He never stopped working, appearing in nearly 200 films and series.
Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — roles in Robert Redford’s “Familiar Nation” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” More, recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films.
A memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” is due out in November.
“I like to paintings. I passionately like to paintings,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I like to really feel my hand have compatibility into the glove of a few alternative personality. I think a plenty independence — day stops for me. I’m now not as disturbed as I old to be, however I’m nonetheless a minute disturbed.”
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 with his own radio station at age 14.
“When I used to be 13 or 14, I in point of fact idea the whole thing I felt used to be incorrect and threatening, and that God used to be committing to execute me for it,” Sutherland told The New York Times in 1981. “My father all the time stated, ‘Conserve your mouth close, Donnie, and perhaps folk will assume you have got personality.'”
Sutherland began as an engineering student at the University of Toronto but switched to English and started acting in school theatrical productions. While studying, he 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 British television. After a move to Los Angeles, a series of war films changed his trajectory.
His breakthrough was “The Grimy Accumulation” , in which he played Vernon Pinkley, the officer-impersonating psychopath. 1970 saw the release of the World War II yarn “Kelly’s Heroes” and “M.A.S.H.,” a smash hit that catapulted Sutherland to stardom.
“There’s extra problem in personality roles,” Sutherland told The Washington Post in 1970. “There’s longevity. A excellent personality actor can display a distinct face in each and every movie and now not bore the crowd.”
If Sutherland had had his way, Altman would have been fired from “M.A.S.H.” He was unhappy with the director’s unorthodox, improvisational style. But the film caught on beyond anyone’s expectations.
Sutherland identified with its 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 in venues near military bases in Southeast Asia in 1973.
“I thought I was going to be part of a revolution that was going to change movies and its influence on people,” Sutherland told the Los Angeles Times.
His career as a leading man peaked in the 1970s, when he starred in films by the era’s top directors — even if they didn’t always do their best work with him. Sutherland, who frequently said he considered himself at the service of a director’s vision, worked with Federico Fellini , Bernardo Bertolucci , Claude Chabrol and John Schlesinger .
One of his finest performances came as a detective in Alan Pakula’s “Klute” . All through filming he met Fonda, with whom he had a three-year courting that started on the finish of his 2d marriage to actor Shirley Douglas. He and Douglas divorced in 1971 later having twins: Rachel and Kiefer, who used to be named later Warren Kiefer, the essayist of Sutherland’s first movie, “Castle of the Living Dead.”
Nicolas Roeg’s mental horror movie “Don’t Look Now” used to be every other top level. Sutherland starred with Julie Christie as a grieving couple who travel to Venice later their daughter’s loss of life. The movie integrated a well-known, particular intercourse scene, artfully edited.
“Nic and I thought that maybe I would die in the process of it, so much were we committed,” Sutherland as soon as stated. His awe for the movie and Roeg used to be such that he and his upcoming spouse, actress Francine Racette, named their first-born kid Roeg.
Sutherland married Racette in 1972 and remained together with her. She survives him. They’d two alternative youngsters: Rossif, named later the director Frederic Rossif; and Angus Redford, named later Redford.
Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” also dealt with the loss of a child. His directorial debut, starring Sutherland as the father of a family destroyed by tragedy, won four Oscars, including best picture.
Sutherland was never nominated for an Academy Award but received an honorary Oscar in 2017. He did win an Emmy in 1995 for the TV film “Citizen X” and won two Golden Globes for “Citizen X” and the 2003 TV film “Path to War.”
Sutherland’s New York stage debut in 1981, though, went terribly. He played Humbert Humbert in Edward Albee’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” and the reviews were merciless; it closed after a dozen performances. A down period in the ’80s followed, with failures like the 1981 satire “Gas” and the 1984 comedy “Crackers.”
But Sutherland continued to work steadily and increasingly worked in television, most memorably in HBO’s “Path to War,” in which he played President Lyndon Johnson’s defense secretary, Clark Clifford.
After son Kiefer emerged as a star, Sutherland appeared in numerous films with him, including the 1996 thriller “A Time to Kill” and 2015’s “Forsaken.” However he became ailing the anticipation to play games the daddy at the crash sequence “24.”
To a more youthful date, Sutherland used to be maximum regular as President Snow in “The Hunger Games” franchise starting with the 2012 latest. Sutherland sought out the section.
“The role of the president had maybe a line in the script. Maybe two. Didn’t make any difference,” Sutherland informed GQ. “I thought it was an incredibly important film, and I wanted to be a part of it.”
In his ultimate years, the nonstop actor mused about death onscreen, for actual.
“I’m really hoping that in some movie I’m doing, I die — but I die, me, Donald — and they’re able to use my funeral and the coffin,” Sutherland informed the . “That would be absolutely ideal. I would love that.”
Related Press writers Andrew Dalton and Kaitlyn Huamani contributed from Los Angeles.
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