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Sutherland was born in Saint John, New
Brunswick and grew up in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, the grandson of a
Protestant minister. Sutherland got his first part time job aged 14 as a
news correspondent for his local radio station CKBW Radio in Bridgewater,
Nova Scotia. He then studied at Victoria College, University of Toronto (where
he was expelled from residence for throwing a sink out of a window)
eventually graduating with a double major in engineering and drama. He had
at one point been a member of "UC Follies" comedy troupe in Toronto. He
changed his mind about becoming an engineer and subsequently left Canada for
England to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
In the early 1960s he began to get small parts in British film and TV, in
the mid 1960s getting notable roles in horror films with Christopher Lee
such as Castle of the Living Dead (1964), and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
(1965). His first great successes came with the three war films The Dirty
Dozen in 1967 with Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, in 1970 as the lead Capt.
'Hawkeye' Pierce in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H and as tank commander Sgt.
Oddball in Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas. Sutherland
formed an intimate friendship with the actress Jane Fonda during the filming
of the Academy award winning detective thriller Klute (1971), Sutherland
later remarked that they had had a physical relationship on and off screen (to
critic Mark Cousins in 2001). Sutherland and Fonda went on to co-produce and
star together in the anti Vietnam war film F.T.A. (1972) consisting of a
series of sketches performed outside army bases in the Pacific Rim and
interviews with the American troops who were then on active service.
Sutherland found himself in demand as a leading man throughout the 1970s in
films such as the Venice based psychological horror Don't Look Now (1973),
the war film The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and as the ever optimistic health
inspector in the sci-fi horror Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
alongside Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum. He also made acclaimed
performances in the 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci Italian fascism epic (318
minute) 1900 and for his role as the torn father in the Academy award
winning family drama Ordinary People (1980) alongside Mary Tyler Moore and
Timothy Hutton. He played the part of fellow countryman, Canadian Norman
Bethune, a physician, humanitarian and hero in China with whom he identified,
in two separate biographical films in 1977 and 1990. Through the 1980s and
1990s his films were perhaps less noteworthy than those in the 70s,
exceptions being the South African apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1989)
alongside Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon, the fire fighter thriller
Backdraft (1991) alongside Kurt Russell and De Niro, and as the snobbish NYC
art dealer in Six Degrees of Separation (1993) with Stockard Channing and
Will Smith. In the Oliver Stone film JFK, Sutherland played a mysterious
Washington intelligence officer who spoke of links to the military-industrial
complex in relation to Kennedy's assassination. Recently he has been noted
for his role as the Reverend Monroe in the civil war drama Cold Mountain
(2003), in the re-make of The Italian Job (2003), and in Pride and Prejudice
(2005) starring alongside Keira Knightley.
Sutherland's distinctive voice has been used in many radio and television
commercials, including those for Volvo automobiles.
He was married to the actress Shirley Douglas from 1966-1970, daughter of
Canadian democratic socialist statesman Tommy Douglas by whom he has a
daughter Rachel and a son Kiefer Sutherland (a prominent actor and director,
best known for his role in the TV series 24). He was previously married to
Lois Hardwick (1959-1966) (divorced), and briefly had a relationship with
the actress Jane Fonda during the early 1970s. He met his current wife, the
French-Canadian actress Francine Racette on the set of the Canadian pioneer
drama Alien Thunder (1974) (she was later to star in the classic war drama
Au revoir les enfants (1987). Together they have three sons (all named after
directors who they worked with) Roeg b.1974, Rossif b.1978 (appeared in the
2003 film based on the Michael Crichton novel Timeline and the 2005 film Red
Doors), and Angus Redford b.1979.
Sutherland was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978. |
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DONALD SUTHERLAND PICTURES |
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