Hunger Games, Dirty Dozen star Donald Sutherland dead at 88
The renowned actor Donald Sutherland, who starred in films from the Dirty Dozen to the Hunger Games, has died, it has been announced.
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US acting legend Donald Sutherland has died aged 88, his son fellow actor Kiefer Sutherland has announced.
He died on Thursday, US time, in Miami.
Sutherland’s lengthy career encompassed films including The Dirty Dozen and Don’t Look Now.
But for a younger generation of movie goers it was the Canadian’s portrayal of the evil, scheming yet charming president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow, in The Hunger Games, which he will be remembered most vividly for.
“With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away,” actor Kiefer Sutherland wrote on X/Twitter.
“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.”
Sutherland married three times and had five children.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “deeply, deeply starstruck,” when he first met Sutherland.
“My thoughts go out to Kiefer and the entire Sutherland family, as well as all Canadians who are no doubt saddened to learn, as I am right now.
“He was a man with a strong presence, a brilliance in his craft and truly, truly a great Canadian artist,” he added on Thursday.
Ron Howard, the Happy Days actor to renowned director who worked with Sutherland in the 1991 film Backdraft, was effusive.
“One of the most intelligent, interesting and engrossing film actors of all time,” he wrote on social media.
“Incredible range, creative courage and dedication to serving the story and the audience with supreme excellence.”
Sutherland was born in the province of New Brunswick in eastern Canada in 1935. His first job, at just 14, was a news reporter for a local radio station in Nova Scotia.
He studied both drama and engineering at university in Toronto but eventually advanced his career as an actor by attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1957.
In the 1960s he appeared in a number of horror movies with Christopher Lee as well as British TV dramas.
Breakout role
Sutherland’s role in the Second World War film The Dirty Dozen, with Charles Bronson, propelled him to fame.
He played Hawkeye in the film MASH that preceded the long running TV series and then starred in the acclaimed psychological horror film Don’t Look Now in 1973.
One of his most memorable roles was that of scientist Matthew Bennell in sci-fi horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1978 where the film’s iconic last shot was Sutherland screaming into the camera revealing his true form as an alien.
Sutherland portrayed President Snow in the four initial Hunger Games films from 2012 to 2015.
He has been nominated for nine Golden Globes but never an Oscar. However in 2017 he received an Honorary Academy Award.
Sutherland married three times: to Lois May Hardwick, Shirley Douglas and Francine Racette.
He had two children – Keifer and Rachel from his second wife Shirley Douglas and three – Rossif, Angus and Roeg – with Francine Racette.
Originally published as Hunger Games, Dirty Dozen star Donald Sutherland dead at 88
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