Donald sutherland

He was born in 1935 in Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada). Although at first he had a vocation as a sculptor, over time he realized that he would not be able to make works of art just to please people, so he decided to enroll in Engineering and Dramatic Arts at the University of Toronto; he later moved to London, where he finished his acting career.

Donald is the father, among others, of the well-known actor, Kiefer Sutherland , who achieved popularity thanks to the series24 , of which the veteran actor confesses not to miss an episode. Father and son worked together on two occasions, Hello Mr. Dugan (1983), Jack Bauer’s film debut, andA Time to Kill (1996), a courtroom thriller based on a famous novel by John Grisham .

But let’s go with the father, who is the one who concerns us. Sutherland Senior began in the cinema in the early sixties with small roles in mediocre films, while getting brief appearances in a television series. In 1965 he got a supporting role. He was in the horror film Fanatic , a film of the same genre as most of the films in which he had appeared up to then.

Two years later, he landed a supporting role in the Robert Aldrich classic Dirty Twelve , and from this moment on, his career finally gave the boost he needed. The same year, the actor participated in Philip Saville ‘s version ofOedipus Rex .

At the end of this decade, Sutherland began to obtain more relevant roles, but it would not be until 1970 when he would make his big debut. Robert Altman gave her her first leading role in the war movieMASH (1970) , where he played Captain Hawkeye. The film – Palme d’Or at Cannes – was so successful that, years later, CBS launched the series of the same name, the last episode of which broke the audience record in the United States. Sutherland’s performance in Altman’s film marked the beginning of this actor’s foray into films of the same genre; so, they continuedKelly’s violent , of the same year;Johnny Got His Gun (1971), in which the novelist himself, Dalton Trumbo , made the film adaptation;The eagle has arrived (1976), along with two other greats, Michael Caine and Robert Duvall ;The Eye of the Needle , in which he played a spy for the Allies during World War II; Impending dominance , set in the Cold War, andCold Mountain , Anthony Minghella ‘s acclaimed filmthat received an Oscar and seven nominations.

It soon became apparent that Donald Sutherland was going to be next to impossible to pigeonhole. Even after making so many movies in the same genre, he managed to develop great versatility over the years. An example of this changeability is theFellini’s Casanova ; Sutherland starred in a new remake of the life of the Venetian womanizer, in which it was one of his best roles, if not his best, characterized by a remarkable nose, and decked out in layers and layers of petticoats. Here we could really see him in action, jumping over one courtesan and the other while she melted the rice powder on her and tousled her ponytail. The actor recently said with a laugh that he “would look a bit silly playing Casanova now” but, my friend Donald, it’s inevitable that the years will wear off…

1976 was a productive year for the actor; with just months of difference he premieredNovecento and the eagle has arrived . Sutherland was so shocked by his own performance as a sadistic and evil fascist leader in Bernardo Bertolucci ‘s film , that he was unable to see the film for years.

Sutherland has not only excelled on the big screen; His work for television has earned him several Emmys and Golden Globes. The series Human Trafficking andMrs. President , and the successful HBO productions:Citizen X , with Mira Sorvino , andRoad to War , where the actor played a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson.

He is also a noted actor in the performing arts. He received nothing but praise after his exhibition of the painter Malcolm Raphelson at New York’s Lincoln Center with the acclaimed “Ten Unknowns” by Jon Robin Baitz .

It is difficult to choose an essential filmography among the more than one hundred films in which this actor has participated (it is also true that he has appeared in a large number of flops). Donald Sutherland didn’t just make horror movies in his early days; often, he would pick up on fantastic thrillers; in this line stand outInvasion of the Body Snatchers , remake of Don Siegel ‘s classic , andFallen , with Denzel Washington and John Goodman . An actor with a multitude of records, as we said, he also stood out in Oliver Stone ‘s biographical intrigue ,JFK , as a suffering father inOrdinary People , in the adventure film Stone Cry , one of director Werner Herzog ‘s many eulogies for nature , in the dramaPride and Prejudice , by young filmmaker Joe Wright and, more recently, in comedyLike crazy… for the gold and in the television seriesSexyMoney .