Remembering Donald Sutherland (1935–2024)

Anton: Donald Sutherland, one of Canada’s greatest actors, passed away on June 20, 2024. The father of Kiefer Sutherland, Donald is probably best-known for a string of excellent performances in great movies from the 1970s, and then for playing esteemed old guy supporting roles over the past few decades. He was one of those actors I was always happy to see show up in a movie. 

Of course, this over-simplifies a career that was very long and rich.

I think the earliest major performance by Sutherland that I’ve seen is in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H (1970), where he plays army surgeon “Hawkeye” Pierce. It’s one of those strange roles where, even if Alan Alda’s Hawkeye from the TV show might be more famous, Sutherland’s is still a memorable performance. 

Anders, you’ve always praised Sutherland’s performance as Fletcher Prouty in Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991). Was that his first role where you were really aware of him as an actor?

Anders: It’s hard to remember where I first saw Donald Sutherland in a film, since as a Canadian, Sutherland has long been one of the most famous Canadian actors who “made it big” in the USA. While JFK was probably my favourite of his roles, I think the first film I saw him in was the Oscar-winning 1980 film, Ordinary People (1980), in which he plays Timothy Hutton’s grieving father. For some reason, one of my high school English teachers showed us the film in class, but I’m sure beyond the thematic material, Sutherland’s presence was a mark in the film’s favour for a Canadian classroom. I was then aware of his turn in Altman’s M*A*S*H, but I don’t think I properly appreciated it because, as you note, Alda was such an icon in our household (the television M*A*S*H is one of our mother’s favourite TV shows).

I should also mention, for added Canadian and Saskatchewan connection, his second marriage was to Shirley Douglas (Kiefer’s mother), the daughter of famed Saskatchewan premier and father of Canadian healthcare, Tommy Douglas.

But definitely, he was someone who whenever he showed up in a film, with his heavy lidded eyes and iconic voice, you took notice.

Aren: What a pro. You were always in good hands with Sutherland, always guaranteed a performance that was committed and interesting and never, ever conventional. We’ll dig into some of his more notable roles, but his performance as Mr. X in JFK is a great jumping off point because it captures how good Sutherland was in small roles, where he absolutely provides just what a film needs of him. He’s in JFK for around 16 minutes, but he nails perhaps the essential monologue of the film and epitomizes the film’s paranoid tone. (Anders wrote about revisiting JFK in an essay for the site.) Sutherland does this in so many movies, where I might have forgotten much of the movie, but I’ll always enjoy Sutherland’s performance in it.

For example, I don’t have a great love for The Eagle Has Landed (1976), which is a decent war picture, but hardly a classic. However, Sutherland’s performance as an Irish Republican Army spy helping the Nazis onto the British mainland has stuck in my mind for years. Same with his work as the hippie prof in Animal House (1978), a movie I don’t love like others do, or even his work in the mostly-forgettable Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) movie that predates the TV series. And then there’s his work in pretty mediocre movies that looms large, such as his pure evil Major General Donald McClintock in Outbreak (1995), who allows the entire ebola outbreak in the movie to occur. He somehow manages to personify the by-the-book, fascistic approach of some career military men in a way that I’ve never been able to forget.

Anders: I also vaguely recall his supporting turn in The Dirty Dozen (1967).

Anton: I only saw Klute (1971) in recent years, but Sutherland gives a great performance as a detective in that thriller. It’s a good performance to demonstrate some of his signature features. First of all, he’s a somewhat unique looking figure, and it shows how in the 1970s you could be a leading man and not be conventionally handsome. It also shows that he always plays complex characters. As a leading man, he’s rarely one note, and often a mix of admirable and flawed qualities. And he has those intense eyes, with the strong eyebrows, and often wears facial hair, such as a mustache or beard.

Aren: His performance in Klute is interesting because he’s the title character, private investigator John Klute, but not the main focus of the film. That would be Jane Fonda’s call girl, Bree Daniel. She won Best Actress for her role and gives what is widely considered one of the best performances of the 1970s. But Donald Sutherland is so essential to the film working. The key here is that Sutherland brings an understated obsessiveness to the role. He’s unconventional, as you say, in terms of how he looks and carries himself in the film, as Klute is remarkably shy, but he’s also giving a charged performance. The way he stares at Fonda in the film is so key to the movie’s impact, as it grows her appeal in the viewer’s eyes, but also gives the film an erotic element that’s recognizably human and unglamorized. Sutherland’s intensity is something I will always value about him. He’s never a loud performer, but his gaze and his conviction in his line deliveries, his utter credibility, is so key to making his performances seem so alive.

Anton: I totally agree. Utter credibility in almost every performance.

Aren: He has a similar energy in Philip Kaufman’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), which I rewatched the day he died. He provides an intellectual energy to the role, but he never comes across as a passive, nerdy type. He’s still our protagonist, and he projects intelligence and fortitude, but also a physical presence that’s so notable. Sutherland’s height helps sell the physicality, but again, it’s also the quiet confidence that Sutherland has as a performer. You feel like he can hold his own in a fight, whether a verbal or physical one.

Anders: I really love his performance in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which stands out even amongst the great cast of that film. You’re absolutely right in noting his strong physical presence, which is related to both his stature and his face, which sells the world-weariness and intellect. But there was always a fire in Sutherland’s eyes. Even when he’s a by-the-book military man or in Body Snatchers, a San Francisco health inspector, his resignation to the job belies his alertness with a twinkle alongside his mischievous grin. It only makes the ending of the film, with the final shot which has become nearly as legendary as that of Kevin McCarthy in the original film, all the more haunting and terrifying.

Both of your comments on Klute are well taken, and I think that his performance in that film as well as in Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973) are some of the finest erotic thriller performances of all time. As you say, there’s something real and full of conviction, which is even more important in Roeg’s film where his grief plays such a key role.

Anton: Yes, you wouldn’t immediately suspect Sutherland would be great in erotic thrillers or in love scenes, but his intensity and looks bring a rawness and credibility to the eroticism. There’s nothing slick or fake about it.

I watched Don’t Look Now for the first time the other night, and thought it was stunning. The complexity of Sutherland’s performance, particularly the range of emotions within a marriage that he demonstrates, is exceptional.

Aren: For younger filmgoers, Donald Sutherland will probably be remembered primarily as President Snow in The Hunger Games films. Despite those movies making Jennifer Lawrence a massive star and having a pretty stacked cast, Sutherland’s cynical, Machiavellian antagonist is the most memorable part of the movies when I think back on them. His work in the series is a great example of Sutherland never seeming to phone it in, even when he was working in a supporting role in larger, more conventional productions than he did in the 1970s.

Anton: President Snow is a great example of where Sutherland’s casting is key. He lends the necessary prestige to the character of Snow, the evil president of the dystopian society, such that the third film in that series can have a climax that involves a conversation between the heroine, Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss, and Sutherland’s President Snow (see my review from 2014).

Anders: You could always count on Sutherland to bring a sense of authority to a role, which is probably why near the end of his life he played so many leaders, from military men to judges and presidents. It’s a testament to his legacy.

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