In Memoriam: Donald Sutherland (July 17, 1935 - June 20, 2024)

RIP Dear Donald Sutherland. We love you. We appreciated you. We will miss you. THANK YOU for portraying our forever favorite and dearest PAPA, MR. BENNET. 

Sending love and deepest sympathy to his family. 

Compiled via AP/NY Times/Variety:

Donald Sutherland, a prolific Canadian actor was never nominated for an Academy Award, but received an honorary Oscar in 2017. He did win an Emmy in 1995 for the TV film “Citizen X” and won two Golden Globes for “Citizen X” and the 2003 TV film “Path to War.”

His illustrious career spanned nearly 7 decades. He appeared in almost 200 Films & TV Series  including Pride & Prejudice, The Hunger Games Movies, M.A.S.H, Ordinary People, Klute, JFK, and Cold Mountain amongst so many others. 

His son, Kiefer Sutherland announced his death on social media. CAA, the talent agency that represented Mr. Sutherland, said he had died in a hospital after an unspecified “long illness” in Miami. He was 88.

Born in St. John, New Brunswick, Donald McNichol Sutherland was the son of a salesman and a mathematics teacher. Raised in Nova Scotia, he was a disc jockey with his own radio station at age 14.

His breakthrough was “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), in which he played Vernon Pinkley, the officer-impersonating psychopath. 1970 saw the release of the World War II yarn “Kelly’s Heroes” and “M.A.S.H.,” a smash hit that catapulted Sutherland to stardom.

“There is more challenge in character roles,” Sutherland told The Washington Post in 1970. “There’s longevity. A good character actor can show a different face in every film and not bore the public.”

To a younger generation, Sutherland was most familiar as Mr. Bennet in “Pride & Prejudice” (2005), President Snow in “The Hunger Games” franchise beginning with the 2012 original.

He was also memorable in 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice” as Keira Knightley’s father.

Donald Sutherland’s memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” is due out in November 12, 2024.

“I love to work. I passionately love to work,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”

A private celebration of life will be held by the family.

Sutherland is survived by his wife Francine Racette, sons Roeg, Rossif, Angus, and Kiefer, daughter Rachel, and four grandchildren. 

See tributes (thus far) from his P&P co-stars Brenda Blethyn and Jena Malone. Also, Focus Features and Working Title Films who produced and distributed P&P movie, and more…