Something like 190 film and television credits. One of those actors who needed to wake up every day with a script in his hand, but never phoned it in, no matter the quality of the project. He could play a loving family man, or evil personified, equally skillfully. A classy, elegant thesp, and a Canadian icon. At 88 years old, I guess it’s not wholly unexpected, but it’s still terribly sad news.
My fave performances of his…how to choose? Six Degrees of Separation, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, JFK, Outbreak (what? it’s fun!), Pride & Prejudice.
“If any other suitors turn up, pray send them in. I am quite at my ease.” (With a dry chuckle that he can’t quite believe his daughters’ good fortune.)
Mr. Sutherland was great in Kelly’s Heroes as Oddball, but the character was too much of an anachronism to be truly enjoyable.
In his second feature film, Castle of the Living Dead (1964), he played three roles - including an old woman - though I recall only spotting him twice. Perhaps it was because the movie was pretty bad?
Mr. Sutherland was almost funny in Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), but he always seemed too weird to be effective in comedies. I thought the aforementioned Fellini’s Casanova was a much better fit for him.
He was very effective in End of the Game (1975) as a corpse. Sure, it was only a cameo, but he seemed to capture the character’s motivation extremely well in very little screen-time.
I have never seen all of 1900 (1976), but I have seen the scene where he kills a cat in a very disturbing way. It made not want to watch the whole movie even more.
I always thought Mr. Sutherland would have made a very credible Hunter S. Thompson back in the day. Too bad he never got to play him.
I was going to remark on his role as Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. I thought he was superb.
Please forgive the slight nitpick, but the line is “If any young men come for Mary or Kitty, for heaven’s sake, send them in. I’m quite at my leisure.”
My daughter fell in love with the movie when she was 13, so I’ve watched it 7 or 8 times.
I just recently mentioned here my favorite scene of his in the codebreaking movie Sebastian.
Another obscure but fun scene is in Johnny Get Your Gun where he plays Jesus. Typecasting? At one point he’s leaning out of a railroad locomotive going at full speed and howling. I think that’s referenced in Luke.
What a fine, versatile actor he was. Last Saturday night, for about the 15th time, we watched the 1978 version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” in which he starred. (To this day, purists bust on that movie but we’ve always thought it was great and it still is.) While watching the movie, the thought crossed my mind that he was one of the only actors who began in the 1960s who was still active, even if only on occasion. “Eye of the Needle” is another favorite of ours. Sad to hear he’s gone.
