Rome, 20 June 2024 – Goodbye to Donald Sutherland. The beloved Canadian actor, 88, passed away in Miami. He is ‘remembered for dozens of films since’The Dirty Dozen‘ to ‘Mash‘ until the saga ‘Hunger Games’. A long career crowned in 2017 by Oscar Prize.
The star’s passing was announced son Kiefer on social media: “With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, is dead,” wrote the star’s son –. Personally, I consider him one of the most important actors in the history of cinema. Never discouraged by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and you can never ask for more. A life well lived”. Prodigious performer directed by the greatest directors, unforgettable Casanova for Federico Fellini and protagonist of “Twentieth century” Of Bernardo Bertolucci alongside Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu.
Farewell to Oscar winner Donald Sutherland (Ansa)
Learn more:
The Sutherland ‘clan’. Who are Donald’s children and what do they do
Life and career
Initially a DJ for a local radio station, he studied Engineering and Theater at the University of Toronto. Encouraged by a Canadian critic he sets off on an adventure and lands in London. In the British capital he will enroll in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
Sutherland will make his big screen debut in the Italian film ‘The castle of the living dead‘. In the 1960s he continued to appear playing small parts in horror films. Until ’68, when Robert Aldrich offered him the part in ‘The Dirty Dozen‘. But the real revelation will be in ’70 when he will play the role of Captain Pierce in the film ‘Mash’ by Robert Altman, where the comedy duo with his friend Gould was formed. The two will return to act side by side in Irvin Kershner’s ‘SPYS’ (1974). Sutherland reached the pinnacle of his career with three roles: in ‘The day of the locust (1975) by John Schlesinger where he admirably drew a murderer killed by the crowd after having murdered a boy; in ‘Twentieth century‘ (1976) by Bertolucci in which he outlined with great skill the unforgettable role of Attila, a ferocious and vile provincial fascist in Mussolini’s Italy and in “The Casanova” (1976) by Fellini where he played the role of the famous Venetian seducer rendered with ironic melancholy. Among his last films, his performance in the saga is memorable Hunger Games (2023).
In his life Sutherland married three times: his first wife was Lois Hardwick with whom he divorced and remarried, in ’66, to Shirley Douglas with whom he had his first two children: Rachel And Kiefer, the now well-known and established actor. In ’70 he got married to Francine Rachette with whom he will have three more children: Roegthe actor Rossif And Angus.
