Donald Sutherland Biography
Summary
"Donald McNichol Sutherland", OC (born July 17, 1935) is a prolific Canadian actor with a film career spanning over 40 years.
Biography
Early life
Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of Dorothy Isobel (née McNichol) and Frederick McLae Sutherland, who worked in sales and ran the local gas, electricity, and bus company. He got his first part time job aged 14 as a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW Radio in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. He then studied at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and graduated 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.
Acting career
In the early 1960s, Sutherland 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 Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce in Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H (film)" and as tank commander "Sgt. Oddball" in "Kelly's Heroes" with Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas. Sutherland had an intimate relationship (on and off-screen) with actress Jane Fonda, during the filming of the Academy award-winning detective thriller "Klute."
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 had a small role as the pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in "National Lampoon's Animal House" in 1978.
He also received acclaim for his performances in the 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci Italian fascism epic "1900" and for the 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, in two separate biographical films in 1977 and 1990. A prolific actor, some of Sutherland's better-known roles in the 1980s and 1990s were 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 1991 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. He also guest starred in "The Simpsons" episode 'Lisa the Iconoclast'. He starred as Wilhem Reich in the video to the 1985 Kate Bush single Cloudbusting.
In more recent years, Sutherland 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), in the TV series Commander in Chief (2005) and in "Pride and Prejudice" (2005) starring alongside Keira Knightley. He earned an Emmy nomination in 2006 for his performance in the TV movie 'Human Trafficking'.
Sutherland will also be starring in the prime-time serial, "Dirty Sexy Money", for ABC. Sutherland's distinctive voice was also used in many radio and television commercials, including those for Volvo automobiles. He is also the spokesperson for Simply Orange orange juice.
Personal life
Sutherland was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on 18 December 1978. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. Sutherland maintains a home in Georgeville in Quebec's Eastern Townships.
Sutherland met his current wife, the French-Canadian actress, Francine Racette, on the set of the Canadian pioneer drama "Alien Thunder". They have three sons, including actors Rossif Sutherland, Angus Sutherland as well as Roeg Sutherland. Kiefer Sutherland and his twin sister Rachel were born to Sutherland and his second wife Shirley Douglas. Sutherland's son Kiefer is also a successful actor, best known for his role as Jack Bauer on the TV action/thriller series 24.
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Donald Sutherland.
