The Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, star of films including The Hunger Games and Don’t Look Now, has died at 88 after a long illness.
His son, the actor Kiefer Sutherland, said: “With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. 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 had almost 200 credits to his name in a career spanning more than half a century.
The news was met with an outpouring of support and tributes.
Actor Rob Lowe, who starred alongside Sutherland in the miniseries Salem’s Lot, called his former co-star “one of our greatest actors”.
“It was my honor to work with him many years ago, and I will never forget his charisma and ability,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
Cary Elwes, a co-star in the 2001 television film Uprising, said he was “devastated” by Sutherland’s death.
“Our hearts are breaking for you,” he told Kiefer in an Instagram message. “So grateful to have known [and] worked with him. Sending our love.
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Sutherland started as a radio news reporter before travelling to London in 1957 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
He then took on small roles in British film and television.
His earliest high-profile roles were in war films including 1967’s The Dirty Dozen, and Kelly’s Heroes and M*A*S*H from 1970.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalled feeling “deeply, deeply star-struck” 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 said.
“He was a man with a strong presence, a brilliance in his craft and truly, truly a great Canadian artist,” he added.
US President Joe Biden said Sutherland was a “one-of-a-kind actor who inspired and entertained the world for decades”.
Ron Howard, who directed Sutherland in the 1991 film Backdraft, said that he was “one of the most intelligent, interesting [and] engrossing film actors of all time”.
Jane Fonda was Sutherland’s co-star in Alan J Pakula’s 1971 thriller, Klute, about a detective whose hunt for a missing person is assisted by a high-priced call girl.
They dated for two years.
In a tribute on Instagram, Fonda described Sutherland as a “brilliant actor” with whom she shared “quite a few adventures”, including performances to active servicemen during an anti-Vietnam war tour in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.
“I am heartbroken,” she added.
By BBC News
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