Actor Donald Sutherland, who starred in films including “The Hunger Games” and “Don’t Look Now,” has died at the age of 88 after a long illness.
His son Kiefer announced his father’s death in a statement.
“It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally consider him one of the most important actors in the history of cinema,” he said. “Never was intimidated by a character, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did, doing what he loved, and one could never ask for more. Lived a good life.”
Sutherland has starred in films including “The Dirty Dozen,” “MASH” and “Klute.”
One of the Canadian actor’s breakthrough roles was as Hawkeye Pierce in the 1970 film MASH, a comedy about medics in the Korean War.
Sutherland has nearly 200 credits to his name.
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Sutherland began his career as a broadcast news reporter before leaving Canada in 1957 for London.
He subsequently had small roles in British films and television.
Sutherland starred in “The Dirty Dozen,” a World War II action film that premiered in 1967.
His ill-timed performance landed him a role in another war film, as Sergeant Odeball in Kelly’s Heroes.
However, he gave a more restrained performance in 1971’s “Klute,” playing a detective searching for a missing person with the help of a high-priced call girl.
Jane Fonda co-starred with Sutherland in Alan J. Pakula’s film and won an Academy Award for her role.
He dated Fonda for two years before the two broke up.
Such candid sex scenes in the 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now led viewers to believe he and co-star Julie Christie had actually had sex – a rumor Sutherland later denied.
In the 1970s, he also played an IRA member in “Eagles Landing,” a marijuana-smoking college professor in the National Lampoon’s “Animal House,” and in the 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” main character.
In the 1980s, Sutherland played the father of a suicidal teenager in the Oscar-winning film “Normal People.”
In the 2000s, he moved to television, appearing in series such as “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Commander in Chief.”
Sutherland had four sons and one daughter.
Despite starring in multiple roles, the Canadian actor was never nominated for an Oscar but received an honorary Oscar in 2017.
