This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more Kelly's Heroes: Clint Eastwood stars in trailer for 1970 film Back in 1969, Hollywood legends Clint Eastwood , Telly Savalas, Don Rickles and Donald Sutherland headed to Yugoslavia to shoot World War II movie Kelly Heroes. The classic movie saw a group of American soldiers learn from a drunk German of Nazi gold hidden behind enemy lines, that they go on a mission to steal for themselves.
Having had his big break in 1967’s The Dirty Dozen, Sutherland – who died a month ago – had a wild experience on set, including almost losing his life. The Sergeant Oddball actor suffered from spinal meningitis in the middle of shooting Kelly’s Heroes, which put him in a coma and almost cost him his life. Read more.
.. Marlon Brando ‘couldn’t stand’ Clint Eastwood and thought acting was ‘bulls***’ Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland in Kelly's Heroes (Image: GETTY) According to The Irish Examiner , Sutherland said: “I came to Yugoslavia for a day's filming and I was out for six weeks.
They took me to hospital – I had spinal meningitis. They didn't have the antibiotics, so I went into a coma, and they tell me that for a few seconds, I died. I saw the blue tunnel, and I started going down it.
I saw the white light. I dug my feet in. I didn't want to go – but it was incredibly tempting.
You just go: ‘Aw, s**t man, why not?’.” Sutherland’s then-wife Shir.
