Obituary: Donald Sutherland
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Having appeared in nearly 200 projects and standing tall at 6ft 3in, the iconic Donald Sutherland was a dominant presence in the entertainment world for close to five decades.
He was born in July 1935 in Saint John, New Brunswick. During his early years, he worked as a radio news reporter and later went on to earn a degree in engineering from the University of Toronto.
However, it didn't take him long to become interested in acting, which inspired him to leave his home country of Canada and journey to London in 1957.
Following a disappointing period studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda), he then spent a year and a half at Perth Repertory Theatre in Scotland.
In 2013, he told the Daily Record that it was the first theater where the audience laughed when he tried to be funny.
The feedback I received from the audience made me feel assured and encouraged for the first time.
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Donald Sutherland was featured in the movie Dr Terror's House of Horrors in 1965.
After that, she took on several minor parts in British movies and TV shows, including working with Christopher Lee in horror movies like Castle of the Living Dead and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors.
The initial film was helmed by Warren Kiefer, with Sutherland naming his first son Kiefer after him following his birth.
During this period, other acting opportunities included appearances in episodes of The Saint, with one of them being overseen by the show's main actor Roger Moore.
Sutherland's big break came after his impressive performance in that event, when he was cast in the World War Two movie The Dirty Dozen.
Sutherland was not initially selected to portray the cheeky soldier Vernon Pinkley, who was one of 12 misfits handpicked by Lee Marvin's character for a dangerous mission deep within enemy territory.
However, director Robert Aldrich was very impressed by Pinkley's performance when he pretended to be a general, so his role in the film was extended.
Sutherland's impressive performance in the auditions helped him secure a major role in M*A*S*H, a humorous movie that pokes fun at the experiences of medics during the Korean War.
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Donald Sutherland played the role of Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H.
In the blog post, it talks about how Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce Jr's personality is to use defiance and dark humor to cope with the tough realities of war and violence.
Sutherland's eccentric demeanour helped him secure a role in another war movie, where he played the character Sergeant Oddball in Kelly's Heroes.
However, he showed a more subdued performance in the 1971 movie Klute, where he portrayed a detective searching for a missing person with the help of an expensive prostitute.
Jane Fonda was the actress who starred alongside Sutherland in a movie directed by Alan J Pakula. She received an Academy Award for her performance in the film.
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Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda star in the film Klute
The couple, who were both involved in politics, were in a relationship for two years. However, their romance came to an end. He later said, "It was a great relationship until we moved in together."
Another movie with a lot of sexual tension was Don’t Look Now, released in 1973. It brought Sutherland to Venice, thanks to Nicolas Roeg directing.
The movie included a very candid sex scene that led many to believe that the actor and his co-star had engaged in real sexual activity - a rumor that Sutherland later dismissed.
Sutherland kept working with respected directors, portraying a cruel fascist in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 and taking on the main role in Federico Fellini's Casanova.
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A promotional image for the movie "Don't Look Now," directed by Nicholas Roeg and featuring actors Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.
Fellini later explained that he chose the actor to play the legendary seducer because he believed he had a magnetic presence and an intense gaze.
During the 1970s, he also portrayed an IRA member in The Eagle Has Landed, a college professor who smokes pot in National Lampoon's Animal House, and the main character in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
In the early 1980s, Sutherland starred as the father of a troubled teenager in Robert Redford's award-winning film Ordinary People.
During that time, he also took on the role of a British sergeant major in Hugh Hudson's film Revolution and joined Kate Bush in her 1985 music video for the song Cloudbusting.
Sutherland continued to work very hard in the 1990s, starring in movies like Backdraft, JFK, Six Degrees of Separation, and A Time to Kill.
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Donald Sutherland and his son, actor Kiefer Sutherland
Later on, he was seen acting with his son Kiefer in a movie. Kiefer had his debut on screen in the movie Max Dugan Returns in 1983, which was also directed by his father.
Sutherland began working in television in the 2000s, taking on roles in shows like Dirty Sexy Money and Commander-in-Chief.
Lately, however, his portrayal as the corrupt President Snow in the Hunger Games series has made him popular among a new group of movie enthusiasts.
"I didn't know about the [Suzanne Collins] books before, but it was clear to me that this was something big," he said in an interview with the Telegraph in 2015.
This was the first piece of writing I had come across in years that had the potential to inspire young people politically in a creative way.
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Donald Sutherland appeared alongside Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games movies.
Sutherland got married three times. He first got married to actress Lois Hardwick when she was a child, and they were married from 1959 to 1966.
His second wedding, to actress Shirley Douglas, was from 1966 to 1971 and resulted in two children, a son named Kiefer and a daughter named Rachel.
He ended up having three sons named Roeg, Rossif, and Angus with his third wife, Canadian actress Francine Racette.
Sutherland never received an Oscar nomination, but he was given a special Academy Award in 2017.
He received his lone Bafta award in 1974 for his performances in the films Don't Look Now and Steelyard Blues.
