A fantastic actor. I always enjoyed his work. Thank you, Donald Sutherland.
Towards the end of his career, he played plenty of older male parts, and always well; and always well-gauged to the material: subtle and nuanced for serious pieces, or over-the-top for the more sensational stuff. But it’s unfortunate that he never had the opportunity to put in a truly great “old man” performance as other actors had. Melvyn Douglas in Hud, Bruce Dern in Nebraska, Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow. Even character actors like Leon Ames in Peggy Sue Got Married. Every great actor and their audience should have that chance.
My favourite role of his was in The Dirty Dozen (which I loved as a kid). I also liked the remake of The Italian Job, although his part was fairly short.
The first thing I recall seeing him in was a 1967 episode of The Avengers – “The Superlative Seven”. It must’ve made a deep impression, because I recalled seeing hi in it after I became familiar with him in the movies (unlike some of his other early work, where I didn’t realize he was even in the film until I read cast lists years later – Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, The Bedford Incident)
A forgotten role of his. The head of the agency fighting alien parasites in “The Puppet Masters”.
I did mention it in passing. He was the best part of that meh movie.
It may have been an anachronism but I can assure you the role was beloved by those who tank for a living.
I mentiomned it, too.
But my favorite bit of casting was having noted conspiracy lover Richard Belzer as a member of the agency hunting hidden aliens
…and having him actually being an alien.
I suspect Puppet Masters was another movie that he took for the money. Not that he wasn’t good in it, but it’s not his usual genre.
Though it was similar enough to Invasion of the Body Snatchers that it was almost a nod to his earlier role.
I read somewhere, back then, he was a fan of Heinlein and thusly took the role.
He starred in a quite enjoyable series with William Fichtner called Crossing Lines. It was a conceptually dopey procedural (a great-looking multinational team of pros solving crimes around the EU) but it was still pretty fun. You could tell Sutherland was enjoying himself. Sadly, Netflix Canada lost the show after I’d only watched the first season, but hopefully I’ll get to finish it off.
Sutherland was huge for a while in the early 1970s, and I’ve followed his career closely since then. Just the other night, I rewatched Eye of The Needle and he was very good in it. Not the greatest casting (he was playing a Brit born in Germany, or something of the sort, but with his usual Canadian accent) and I found the movie (a spy thriller with a woman-in-jeopardy angle) a bit misogynistic. But he was great at playing cold fish types, and this was one. He was also good in a small role in Disclosure.
In stark (to me) contrast to his performance in The Great Train Robbery, which went right up to the line of overplaying and may have put a toe over in places. But he did seem to be enjoying himself.
And here I thought I was the only one who did that!
Donald never lost his enthusiasm for acting and creating memorable characters.
Donald had a lifetime resume of respected work. But he still pitched himself for the Hunger Games.
He mentions drawing from Eye of the Needle for President Snow.
I’ve loved pretty much all of his roles, but his scene in JFK was truly captivating, and as far as I’m concerned, the best part of the entire movie. It was Oscar-worthy in my opinion, but they were probably reluctant to nominate him for such a short amount of screen time.
They should have, though. They gave one to Judi Dench for a super brief appearance.
This is my favorite scene from it. If someone hasn’t seen the movie it doesn’t appear like much is happening but in context with what has gone on before between these characters it’s very powerful.
Good interview. I don’t remember seeing Sutherland on talk shows. He seemed pretty private.
That clip absolutely breaks my heart.
I never saw Donald Sutherland and thought he was ugly at all. All the way from MASH to Hunger Games, he seemed like not the most handsome man in the movies, but 100% not ugly.