Star of The Month-Donald Sutherland

 

DONALD SUTHERLAND

BORN: July 17, 1935

DIED: June 20, 2024

AGED: 88 years old

DIED FROM: a long illness

MARRIED: 3 times- the first to a teacher, Lois Hardwick 1959-1966,; 2nd to an actress, Shirley Douglas 1966-1970 and, lastly, to Francine Racette-1972- his death

AFFAIRS: had a few when first married including with his soon to be 2nd wife who gave birth to twins not quite 9 months later. Jame Fonda..a 2 yr love affair.

CHILDREN: 5 children most in some form of film business with Kiefer Sutherland being the most famous.

OSCAR NOMINATIONS: None!

TAKENT: sculpture and art

KNOWN FOR: his unique voice, tall, lanky frame and his love of the Montreal Expos

This Canadian icon just died, sadly and, even though he was 88, he just seemed to keep going and so it was, therefore, a shock. He was born and grew up in New Brunswick, Canada loving all things Canadian, especially, of course, Hockey. He was a life long Montreal Expos fan and delayed a film shoot so he could attend their games since they were close to the play offs( they finished 3rd). He actually suffered rheumatic fever, hepatitis and polio when he was a kid and, thankfully, didn’t suffer any side effects from these horrible diseases. Later on, when filming “Kelly’s Heroes” he contracted spinal meningitis and, almost died. In fact, the doctor said his heart did stop and he was not surprised as he claimed he had an out of body experience. 

He appeared in some early flicks like “Die, Die, My Darling”  and a Roger Corman film but he also appeared in an “Avengers” episode and 2 episodes of  “The Saint”. He asked Roger Moore, start of The Saint, if he could take a piece from this episode he was in for  a role he was hoping to get and he did get the role..in “The Dirty Dozen”. In his early days, he seemed to play a lot of “simpletons”  due to his look and height of 6’4”. Sorry if this is a politically incorrect word but, I just don’t know what else to say and, frankly, don’t care right now.:). Ok, he became quite well respected because he could play comedy, heroes and really despicable villains plus he was known as quite amiable and loved a good joke. Despite many good roles he was never nominated for an Oscar and only received the honourary Oscar in 2017.

He was also known for his strong anti Vietnam leanings which he shared with Jane, “Hanoi Jane”, Fonda( the idiot) making 2 anti Vietnam films with her. I’m certain he was on Nixon’s list of bad people, which, like Gregory Peck, I would take as an honour. He was at the opening Olympic Games in Vancouver, in 2010,  doing the voice over narration describing Canadian history as well as being a flag bearer. In 2019, he received the companion of the Order of Canada which he loved to receive.

A unique individual with a great voice and talent, he will be sorely missed.

FILMS ( MY FAVOURITES)

1.  Start The Revolution Without Me-1970

2.  MASH-1970

3. The Dirty Dozen-1967

4. Kelly’s Heroes-1970

5.  The Great Train Robbery-1978

6.  Murder By Decree-1979

7. Eye Of The Needle-1981

8. Space Cowboys-2000

9. Bear Island-1979

10. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers-1978

I still need to see 

1. Don’t Look Now-1973

2. Day Of The Locust-1975

3. Ordinary People-1980

4. The Hunger Games Series-2012 etc..

There’s more! Some I have seen and some I haven’t but that’s what I can recall. 

By the way, last week Oscars…Working Girl won, Bagdad Cafe was nominated and Kokomo got nadda.