Donald Sutherland died today in Miami after a long illness. He was 88.
What a wonderful actor. I’ve enjoyed many of his characters in movies. His Irish double agent in The Eagle Has Landed is fascinating. We never know if his loyalty is to the IRA or Nazis. Its probably to himself. 
He’s best known now for The Hunger Games.
He lead a good life.
RIP
At first I thought that his “long illness” was the throat cancer he was diagnosed with ~15 years ago, but then I realized that’s Michael Douglas. I wonder what Sutherland suffered from.
For me, Sutherland’s most memorable role was the German spy in Eye of the Needle, an all-too-often overlooked movie. He was excellent in that.
One of those actors took over the screen any time he appeared. RIP.
He summed up my teaching career perfectly…
I met him once in the Toronto airport. I thanked him for his work. Very gracious, shook my hand.
I was going to mention that performance. I also thought he was terrific in the first remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (from the same era, I think).
Interestingly, he was never even nominated for an Academy Award. He got an honorary one in 2017.
Amazingly he was Sgt Oddball (Kelly’s Heroes) and Capt Hawkeye Pierce (MAS*H) in the same year.
He was great as both. Before that he was Pinkley in the Dirty Dozen. The dumbest of the convicts.
I thought he was great in meh movies Invasion of the Body snatchers and much later Puppet Masters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
He was excellent in Ordinary People, an underrated movie if anything.
Very memorable in a smallish role in Animal House as the Professor.
I don’t know what this tells about me, but the first thing I remember is his very awkward sex scene with Julie Christie in “Don’t Look Now”. Nobody in the history of mankind ever had sex like that. I first saw this film when I was about 14 and already knew that (at least I hoped so).
I don’t know how many times, in moments of despair at work, I’ve said, “I’m not joking - this is my job!”
Yes, and I liked that version a lot. The Kevin McCarthy*** cameo in the beginning was genius.
*** No, not that one.
points and screams
A great actor. He will be sorely missed.
RIP 
Now I’m curious. What did they do?
I don’t know how to describe it, a kind of yoga or other gymnastics, with a bit of ballet? At least the action didn’t look like real sex.
Agree. It was weird and a bit overlong.
An interesting and talented actor. I recognize he was great in Klute and MASH, although they’re not my favorite movies.
He became notorious for taking just about any role – really awful films like Gas and SPYS and The Trouble with Spies. But it also meant that he appeared in The Puppet Masters and as a sorta Hannibal Lecter in Backdraft and The Clumsy Waiter in Kentucky Fried Movie and President Snow in The Hunger Games series.
A couple of other good ones were The Great Train Robbery (with Sean Connery) and the all-but-forgotten Casanova. He played the title character, and damned if he didn’t look like him.
I’m glad about the honorary one, but he certainly should have been nominated several times. Despite his distinctive voice he managed to create characters that differed wildly.
I have the impression that Sutherland worked a LOT in recent years (in small roles). But maybe I’m thinking of a decade or more back.
I’m not seeing information on cause of death. But the Google Search page has this, from RollingStone.com:
So getting to 88, and working so much, was quite an achievement.
So many great roles it is surprising none of them won awards. Sutherland will be missed. Not yet mentioned is his son, known for 24.
Some pictures of a life well lived. (Gift link.)