# RIP Donald Sutherland **URL:** \ **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:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/81 "2024-08-15T13:58:05Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > He was great as both. Before that he was Pinkley in the Dirty Dozen. The dumbest of the convicts. He wasn’t that dumb. He had this fantastic exchange: “Which one of you guys wants to be a general? Pinkley?” “What kind of a general sir?” “Just a plain, ordinary, everyday home loving American general.” “I’d rather be a civilian sir.” ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/82 "2024-08-15T14:18:25Z")
But, but(t)…he revealed bum in “Animal House”! 😦 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/83 "2024-08-16T18:04:14Z")
And [lost out on a lot of money, too, the dumb bastard. 😉](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/news/donald-sutherland-lost-out-on-millions-for-not-accepting-animal-house-backend-offer/ar-BB1oBAIu?ocid=weather-verthp-feeds) ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/84 "2024-08-16T18:36:56Z")
Well, his math is way, way off: > [Given the choice](https://www.businessinsider.com/animal-house-mistake-that-cost-donald-sutherland-millions-2014-3) to earn a fee of either 2 percent of the film’s gross profits or his typical day rate of $25,000, he took the latter. “I told [distributor Universal Pictures], ‘No, you need to pay me my daily rate,’ ” he recalled to [_Variety_](https://variety.com/2014/film/features/donald-sutherland-the-hunger-games-1201347477/) in 2014. > > But _Animal House_, which starred [John Belushi](https://people.com/tv/john-belushi-brother-jim-and-wife-judy-open-up-about-the-late-actor-legacy/), Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Karen Allen and more, went on to become a box office smash, earning over $120 million worldwide. > > Had Sutherland taken that small percentage of the movie’s gross, by his own calculations he “could have ended up with $14 million,” the actor told _Variety_. To get 14 mil, the movie would have had to make 700 mil, not 120. Plus that’s on profit, not gross, and I believe that Hollywood accountants have made a fine art of [making sure no movie ever turns a paper profit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting), so all the backend deals wind up paying out nothing. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2024, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127/85 "2024-08-17T02:08:57Z")
> **[The Simpsons - Animal House Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkzouNX40ew?feature=share)** > > Nobody ever went to classsss [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-donald-sutherland/1003127.md?page=4)