For today’s movie recommendation, I’m taking time to give a RIP to Donald Sutherland, who passed at 88 in Miami yesterday (June 20, 2024). I noticed an uptick in page views on one of my reviews yesterday for “Eye of the Needle” and I checked IMDb.com for the primary cast and found that Sutherland, who was the was in “Eye of the Needle,” had died.
I recall that I first noticed Sutherland in 1967’s World War II classic “The Dirty Dozen” and then in the same year of 1970 he was both the original “Hawkeye Pierce” in the movie “MASH” (no asterisks in the original movie title; they were added for posters) and WWII’s only hippie in one of my all time favorite films, “Kelly’s Heroes” as “Sgt. Oddball” with Clint Eastwood.
Obviously, Sutherland never was cornered by any one type of character or genre of film, he enjoyed the eclectic to the dramatic to the unusual. However, in each he appeared to give it his all and I haven’t seen any of his work where he might have just been “mailing it in” or doing it “just for the paycheck.”
He was in films as varied as the overrated snifflebag “Ordinary People,” but also in the sketch comedy film “The Kentucky Fried Movie” … or just take his quietly great work in Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”
Here is a list of my other favorite films with Sutherland (and until today as I was checking his CV, I didn’t realize he had a bit part in the Cold War classic “The Bedford Incident” with Richard Widmark and Sidney Potier) …
- “Citizen X” … Sutherland won one of his two Golden Globes for “Citizen X” and was also awarded a Primetime Emmy for the movie (remember, back in the 1990s, HBO films were not eligible for Oscar consideration).
- “Panic” … he’s the hitman who trained his son (William H. Macy) to be a hitman.
- “The Eagle has Landed” … another WWII role … this time as an Irishman working for the Nazis.
- “Max Dugan Returns” … a supporting character and a solid job.
- “Horrible Bosses” … another solid job in a small role.
- “Klute” … great drama with Jane Fonda
Overall, Sutherland notched 199 acting credits with the first being an episode on TV’s “Studio 4” in 1962 and the final one from 2023 with being on eight episodes of a TV miniseries called “Lawmen: Bass Reeves.” Others you’ll recognize is “The Hunger Games” franchise as “President Snow;” and in horror, too, with one reboot of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers;”
Fortunately, he was uncredited in Broken Lizard’s “Beerfest” (you know the troupe from “Super Troopers” fame) in one of the worst-ever films inflicted on the public.
Oh, here’s an interesting piece of trivia from IMDb.com about Sutherland during the filming of “Kelly’s Heroes” …
- According to IMDb.com, he became so ill his wife received a telegram asking her to come to the set in Yugoslavia and that there was a chance he wouldn’t be alive when she arrived (he was). Coming back at him on the family news front was word that his wife had been arrested by the FBI for allegedly trying to buy hand grenades for the radical Bl[ack Panthers. Wow. Talk about drama!
Usually, when I see an uptick in page views on a review on my blog, it means that one of the stars (or a star now who was in the supporting cast of an older film) is in the news for better or worse. So, when I see the number of page views of a film review has increased, I’ll check the status of the cast.
Thanks, Donald! You will be remembered for a number of great characters in a number of great films. RIP and Godspeed!
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