Sutherland was known for playing offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” and the stoned professor in “Animal House.”
Donald Sutherland, the prolific Canadian film and television actor whose long career stretched from “M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He was 88.
Kiefer Sutherland, the actor’s son, confirmed his father’s death on Thursday.
“With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away” Kiefer said on X.
“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” he added.
The tall and gaunt Canadian actor with a grin that could be sweet or diabolical was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned professor in “Animal House.”
Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomised the unpredictable, anti-establishment cinema of the 1970s.
Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — parts in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”
More recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films and the HBO limited series “The Undoing.” He never retired and worked regularly up until his death.
“I love to work. I passionately love to work,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”
Sutherland received an honorary Oscar in 2017.
