In a wide-ranging career (from M*A*S*H to Ordinary People to Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), he could be endearing in one role, menacing in another and just plain odd in a third. Donald Sutherland, whose ability to both charm and unsettle, both reassure and repulse, was amply displayed in scores of film roles as diverse as a laid-back battlefield surgeon in M*A*S*H , a ruthless Nazi spy in Eye of the Needle , a soulful father in Ordinary People and a strutting fascist in 1900 , died Thursday in Miami . He was 88.
His son Kiefer Sutherland, the actor, announced the death on social media. CAA, the talent agency that represented Donald Sutherland, said he had died in a hospital after an unspecified “long illness.” He had a home in Miami.
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...
pic.twitter.com/3EdJB03KKT With his long face, droopy eyes, protruding ears and wolfish smile, the 6-foot-4 Sutherland was never anyone’s idea of a movie heartthrob.
He often recalled that while growing up in eastern Canada, he once asked his mother if he was good-looking, only to be told, “No, but your face has a lot of character.” He recounted how he was once rejected for a film role by a producer who said, “This part calls for a guy-next-door type. You .
