Mural of Donald Sutherland on Canterbury Street in Saint John.
Donald Sutherland is one of the most prolific, versatile and distinguished Canadian actors in the entertainment industry, having starred in nearly two hundred film and television productions over the course of his fifty-year career. Sutherland’s acting range, screen presence and distinctive voice gave life to many complex, iconic characters.
When asked about his favourite Sutherland films Jody Osicki, Community Services Librarian at the Saint John Public Library and programmer of its Movie Club and film events, found it tricky to make a choice.
“It’s easy to rave about the classics in which Donald Sutherland appears, but there’s so much I haven’t seen yet and so much variety in what I have, that I may never come up with a definitive answer,” commented Osicki.
“I think that says volumes about why Sutherland is so special and so highly regarded all over the world.”
Sutherland was born July 17, 1935 in Saint John. When he was twelve his family moved to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, where his first part-time job was as a news correspondent and DJ for local radio station CKBW.
While studying at Victoria College, University of Toronto in the early 1950s, he took part in student productions at the Hart House Theatre. He graduated with a dual major in engineering and drama, but Sutherland chose to pursue acting.
He left for Britain to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, then left and spent eighteen months with the Perth Repertory Theatre in Scotland. Sutherland began appearing in small roles on British film and television, with his film debut in the 1964 horror film, Castle of the Living Dead, starring the legendary Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings).
His breakthrough was as Vernon L. Pinkley in Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen (1967). He was a last-minute casting, replacing Jack Palance (Sudden Fear); the film was a smash and studio MGM’s highest-grossing film of the year.
After borrowing money from fellow Canadian actor Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music) to travel to the US and take a chance on Hollywood, Sutherland was cast as the lead in Robert Altman’s war comedy, M*A*S*H* (1970), with Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. The satire encapsulated the disillusionment of the anti-Vietnam War movement and became a cultural phenomenon. M*A*S*H* was one of the highest grossing films of the 1970s, having made $81,600,000 USD in the box office ($538,585,237 USD in 2019). Sutherland’s performance as the Benjamin Franklin, “Hawkeye,” Pierce cemented him as an A-list actor at the age of thirty-five.
Ironically, Sutherland has never received a Best Actor nomination, which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rectified with an Academy Honorary Award in 2017. He has also been awarded stars on Canada’s Walk of Fame (2000) and the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2011).
The height of Sutherland’s career was during New Hollywood’s reign in the 1970s. A new generation of directors led to the boom of creativity, artistic freedom and birth of new cinema classics. Over the course of his career he has garnered six Golden Globe nominations, two BAFTA nominations, an Emmy nomination and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.
Sutherland worked with many of New Hollywood’s top directors and starred in several iconic films, some highlights being including Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers to which Osicki states, “I’m one of those film buffs who maintains that it is the best of the body snatcher films.” Osicki also revealed about John Landis’ Animal House, “The movie needed a bankable star in order to get made, and that was Sutherland; he first met Landis during the making of Kelly’s Heroes, for which Landis worked as a production assistant.” Sutherland also starred in Robert Redford’s Ordinary People and Oliver Stone’s JFK. A new generation was introduced to Sutherland as dictator Commander Snow in the dystopian The Hunger Games franchise (2012-2015).
Sutherland maintains strong ties to Canada was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978 for his services to drama and for three years acted as Master of Ceremonies of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala.
In celebration of Sutherland receiving his honorary Academy Award, Saint John paid tribute to his filmography with a mini film festival showcasing his body of work in November 2017. Osicki organized and selected the films for a 2017 and 2018 ‘Sutherfest’ and revealed, “Although Mr. Sutherland couldn’t visit us, in the fall he sent me a lengthy letter via an e-mail from his PR people which included a brief biography, reminiscences of his time in Saint John.” The anecdotes and photos were organized into a display at the Saint John Free Public Library for the 2017 ‘Sutherfest.’
Sutherland was recently promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada on June 27, 2019 by Gov. Gen. Julie Payette, whose office stated his promotion was for — “His extensive and multi-faceted contributions to the entertainment industry as an acclaimed television, film and stage actor.”
He regularly acted in television long before it became a respected medium bestowed with monikers such as the 2000s “The Golden Age of Television” and the current age of “Peak TV.” He earned an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance in HBO’s Citizen X (1995). He also received a Golden Globe for his role in Path to War (2002). His other notable television work includes Commander in Chief (2005–06), Dirty Sexy Money (2007–09), Crossing Lines (2013–15) and the miniseries The Pillars of the Earth (2010).
Sutherland has been married three times and has five children. His second wife was Shirley Douglas, daughter of Tommy Douglas, Premier of Saskatchewan (1944-1961) and Leader of the NDP (1961-1971), and mother of twins Rachel and Kiefer Sutherland. He also has three sons, Roeg, Rossif and Angus Sutherland with his third wife, French Canadian actress Francine Racette, whom he met while filming Alien Thunder (1974). Sutherland’s children are all involved in the entertainment industry, with Kiefer having the highest profile with his role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series, 24 (2001-2010). His sons were named after directors Sutherland worked with throughout his career.
His most recent films include The Leisure Seeker (2017) with Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Basmati Blues with Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), and most recently played oil baron J. Paul Getty in cable series Trust (2018-), which focused on the infamous 1973 kidnapping of Getty’s grandson.
Sutherland will star alongside Brad Pitt (Seven) and Ruth Negga (Loving) in James Gray’s (The Lost City of Z) sci-fi drama Ad Astra, to be released September 20, 2019, and in the Venice International Film Festival’s closing film The Burnt Orange Heresy, alongside Claes Bang (The Square), Elizabeth Debicki (Widows) and Mick Jagger. Sutherland is currently filming HBO’s drama miniseries The Undoing, with Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies) and Hugh Grant (A Very English Scandal).
