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Actor Donald Sutherland, who appeared in films such as “The Hunger Games” and “Don’t Look Now,” has passed away at the age of 88 after a long illness.
His son, actor Kiefer Sutherland, announced his father’s death in a statement.
“I am sad to announce the passing of my father, Donald Sutherland. I personally consider him one of the most important actors in the history of cinema,” he said.
“Good, bad or ugly, he never flinched. He loved his job and he did what he loved. You couldn’t ask for more. A life well lived.”
Sutherland has appeared in films such as The Dirty Dozen, MASH and Klute.
One of the Canadian actor’s breakout roles was playing surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the 1970 version of MASH, a comedy about medical personnel during the Korean War.
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Sutherland began his career as a radio news reporter before leaving Canada in 1957 for London, where he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
He then played small roles in British films and on television.
Sutherland starred in the World War II action film The Dirty Dozen, which first came out in 1967.
His quirky presence earned him another war film role, the aptly named Sergeant Oddball, in Kelly’s Heroes.
But he gave a more restrained performance in 1971’s Klute, playing a detective who searches for a missing person with the help of a high-priced call girl.
Jane Fonda starred alongside Sutherland in the Alan J. Pakula film and won an Academy Award for her role.
He dated Fonda for two years, after which they broke up.
The 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now featured a sex scene so candid that viewers believed he and co-star Julie Christie had actually had sex, though Sutherland later denied the rumor.
In the 1970s, he played an IRA member in The Eagle Has Landed, a marijuana-smoking college professor in National Lampoon’s Animal House, and had a starring role in the 1978 remake of The Body Snatchers.
In the 1980s, Sutherland played the father of a suicidal teenager in the Oscar-winning film “Ordinary People.”
He turned to television in the 2000s, appearing in series such as “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Commander in Chief.”
Sutherland has four sons and one daughter.
Despite his many roles, the Canadian actor has never been nominated for an Oscar, but he did receive an honorary Academy Award in 2017.
His death comes just months before the scheduled publication of his memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” which chronicles his personal journey as an actor.
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