Donald McNichol Sutherland was born on 17 July 1935 and is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades.
35 Facts About Donald Sutherland
2.
Donald Sutherland has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films Citizen X and Path to War ; the former earned him a Primetime Emmy Award.
3.
Donald Sutherland is the father of actors Kiefer Sutherland, Rossif Sutherland, and Angus Sutherland.
4.
Donald Sutherland was born 17 July 1935, in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of Dorothy Isobel and Frederick McLea Donald Sutherland, who worked in sales and ran the local gas, electricity and bus company.
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Donald Sutherland obtained his first part-time job, at the age of 14, as a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW.
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Donald Sutherland had at one point been a member of the "UC Follies" comedy troupe in Toronto.
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Donald Sutherland changed his mind about becoming an engineer, and left Canada for Britain in 1957, studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
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Donald Sutherland was featured alongside Christopher Lee in horror films such as Castle of the Living Dead and Dr Terror's House of Horrors.
9.
In 1966, Donald Sutherland appeared in the BBC TV play Lee Oswald-Assassin, playing a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Givens.
10.
Donald Sutherland appeared in the TV series The Saint, in the 1965 episode "The Happy Suicide".
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Donald Sutherland made a second, and more substantial appearance in The Saint.
12.
In 1968, after the breakthrough in the UK-filmed The Dirty Dozen, Donald Sutherland left London for Hollywood.
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Donald Sutherland then appeared in two war films, playing the lead role as "Hawkeye" Pierce in Robert Altman's MASH in 1970; and, again in 1970, as hippie tank commander "Oddball" in Kelly's Heroes.
14.
Donald Sutherland starred with Gene Wilder in the 1970 comedy Start the Revolution Without Me.
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Donald Sutherland found himself as a leading man throughout the 1970s in films such as the Venice-based psychological horror film Don't Look Now, co-starring Julie Christie, a role which saw him nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, the war film The Eagle Has Landed, Federico Fellini's Casanova and the thriller Eye of the Needle.
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Donald Sutherland helped launch the internationally popular Canadian television series Witness to Yesterday, with a performance as the Montreal doctor Norman Bethune, a physician and humanitarian, largely talking of Bethune's experiences in revolutionary China.
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Donald Sutherland had a role as pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978, making himself known to younger fans as a result of the movie's popularity.
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Donald Sutherland won acclaim for his performance in the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's 1976 epic film 1900 and as the conflicted father in the Academy Award-winning family drama Ordinary People, alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton.
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Donald Sutherland played the role of physician-hero Norman Bethune in two biographical films in 1977 and 1990.
20.
Donald Sutherland played psychiatrist and visionary Wilhelm Reich in the video for Kate Bush's 1985 single, "Cloudbusting".
21.
In 1994, Donald Sutherland played a software company's scheming CEO in Barry Levinson's drama Disclosure opposite Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, and in 1995 was cast as Maj.
22.
Donald Sutherland was later cast in 1996 with his son Kiefer in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill.
23.
Donald Sutherland played an astronaut in Space Cowboys, with co-stars Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones and James Garner.
24.
Donald Sutherland played a minor role in Mike Binder's Reign Over Me.
25.
Donald Sutherland played multi-millionaire Nigel Honeycut in the 2008 film Fool's Gold.
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Donald Sutherland provided voice-overs and narration during the intro of the first semifinal of Eurovision Song Contest 2009, and the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and was one of the Olympic flag bearers.
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Donald Sutherland was narrator of CTV's "I Believe" television ads in the lead up to the Games.
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Donald Sutherland's role was well received by fans and critics.
29.
Donald Sutherland, who played the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court named Michel Dorn, was one of only two actors to appear in all episodes across three seasons.
30.
Donald Sutherland plays the role of Mr Harrigan in the 2022 Netflix film Mr Harrigan's Phone written and directed by John Lee Hancock, based on the novella of the same name from the book If It Bleeds by Stephen King.
31.
Donald Sutherland was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on 18 December 1978 and promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 2019.
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Donald Sutherland was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000.
33.
Donald Sutherland married French Canadian actress Francine Racette in 1972, after meeting her on the set of the Canadian pioneer drama Alien Thunder.
34.
Donald Sutherland became a blogger for the American news website The Huffington Post during the 2008 United States presidential election campaign.
35.
Documents declassified in 2017 show that Donald Sutherland was on the National Security Agency watchlist between 1971 and 1973 at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency because of his anti-war activities.