# RIP Donald Sutherland
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** celebrity-death
**Created:** [June 20, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127 "2024-06-20T17:48:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/1 "2024-06-20T17:48:07Z")
> **[Donald Sutherland, Star of ‘MASH,’ ‘Klute’ and ‘Hunger Games,’ Dies at 88](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/donald-sutherland-dead-mash-hunger-games-1236043323/)**
>
> Donald Sutherland, who starred in 'MASH,' 'Klute' and 'The Hunger Games' franchise, has died. He was 88.
Donald Sutherland died today in Miami after a long illness. He was 88.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/2 "2024-06-20T18:02:39Z")
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
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### Author:  [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/3 "2024-06-20T18:02:41Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/4 "2024-06-20T18:12:59Z")
One of those actors took over the screen any time he appeared. RIP.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/5 "2024-06-20T18:15:47Z")
He summed up my teaching career perfectly…
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeZqW6eqK2M)
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/6 "2024-06-20T18:16:39Z")
I met him once in the Toronto airport. I thanked him for his work. Very gracious, shook my hand.
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### Author:  [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/7 "2024-06-20T18:25:05Z")
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).
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/8 "2024-06-20T18:25:57Z")
Interestingly, he was never even _nominated_ for an Academy Award. He got an honorary one in 2017.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/9 "2024-06-20T18:35:43Z")
Amazingly he was Sgt Oddball (Kelly’s Heroes) and Capt Hawkeye Pierce (M_A_S\*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.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/10 "2024-06-20T19:10:09Z")
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).
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### Author:  [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/11 "2024-06-20T19:18:14Z")
I don’t know how many times, in moments of despair at work, I’ve said, “I’m not joking - this is my job!”
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/12 "2024-06-20T19:21:33Z")
> [@2\_More\_Bits](#):
>
> I also thought he was terrific in the first remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (from the same era, I think).
Yes, and I liked that version a lot. The Kevin McCarthy\*\*\* cameo in the beginning was genius.
\*\*\* No, not that one.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/13 "2024-06-20T19:25:44Z")
> [@carrps](#):
>
> > [@2\_More\_Bits](#):
> >
> > I also thought he was terrific in the first remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (from the same era, I think).
>
> Yes, and I liked that version a lot. The Kevin McCarthy\*\*\* cameo in the beginning was genius.
>
> \*\*\* No, not that one. -
_points and screams_
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/14 "2024-06-20T19:30:20Z")
A great actor. He will be sorely missed.
RIP ☹
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/15 "2024-06-20T19:31:57Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> Nobody in the history of mankind ever had sex like that.
Now I’m curious. What did they do?
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/16 "2024-06-20T19:33:59Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/17 "2024-06-20T19:37:30Z")
Agree. It was weird and a bit overlong.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/18 "2024-06-20T19:38:00Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/19 "2024-06-20T19:43:57Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> Interestingly, he was never even _nominated_ for an Academy Award. He got an honorary one in 2017.
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](http://RollingStone.com):
> [@](#):
>
> … Born in July 1935 in New Brunswick, Canada, Donald McNichol Sutherland was a sickly child, battling **polio, pneumonia and scarlet fever** , among other diseases, as a boy. (He claimed that, because of spinal meningitis, “I died for four or five seconds.”) …
So getting to 88, and working so much, was quite an achievement.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/20 "2024-06-20T19:50:27Z")
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.)
> **[In photos: Donald Sutherland's biggest movie roles and family pictures](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/2c74378c75ce69f3bd05148883e9aa787edbcaa15de44e8517335ccc76bfb73e/ZYMDSNEEAJHIDCYILTGTKWGRFE/)**
>
> Canadian actor Donald Sutherland has died at the age of 88. Sutherland was known for playing offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in M.A.S.H. and the stoned professor in Animal House, and recently the villain President Snow in the Hunger Games....
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