The expression is overused, but with the death of Donald Sutherland, it is indeed a monument of cinema which disappears. The Canadian actor, who died Thursday at the venerable age of 88, may have specialized in supporting roles in recent decades, but his exceptional contribution to the seventh art during the 1970s and 1980s alone guarantees his status. of immortal. MASHby Robert Altman, Kluteby Alan J. Pakula, Don’t Look Nowby Nicolas Roeg, The Day of the Locustby John Schlesinger, 1900by Bernardo Bertolucci, Fellini’s Casanovaby Federico Fellini, Invasion of the Body Snatchersby Philip Kaufman, Ordinary Peopleby Robert Redford… His filmography is as varied as it is remarkable.
Born in 1935 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Donald Sutherland grew up on the family farm. At age 12, he followed his parents to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, where he worked as a local radio journalist from the age of 14.
At Victoria University in Toronto, he earned degrees in both engineering and drama. The second discipline will prevail.
In 1957, he went into exile to study at the London Academy of Music and Drama. In 1967, he stood out alongside big names like Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson in the war drama The Dirty Dozen, by Robert Aldrich. Here it is launched.
If there is one observation that emerges from Donald Sutherland’s choices, it is his taste for risk, even eccentricity. This is evidenced by most of his successes in the 1970s, where he happily played marginal characters, even when they seemed to lead an orderly life.
We think of his repressed accountant (named Homer Simpson!) in the dark Hollywood satire The Day of the Locustwho commits an unspeakable act before being swallowed by a raging crowd… His health inspector who tries to preserve his identity in the face of the alien invaders ofInvasion of the Body Snatchers is representative of this trend as well, as is his clean suburban policeman converted into a private detective in a sordid New York in Klute.
“I loved my playing partner, Donald Sutherland. I found him to have a puppy dog side, and his drooping, pale blue eyes were particularly attractive. He also had something of an Old World gentleman,” says Jane Fonda in her autobiography.
Moreover, with the latter, Donald Sutherland campaigns against the Vietnam War, notably through Francine Parker’s documentary FTA (For free the army). His participation in Dalton Trumbo’s antimilitarist drama Johnny Got His Gun is not foreign to these convictions.
Which beliefs could have caused him to lose roles, when he was just starting to be a headliner.
The consecration
In this regard, the paradigm shift that occurred in American cinema at the turn of the 1970s, when the golden age gave way to the New Hollywood, with its young iconoclastic filmmakers and for the first time trained in cinema studies at the university, works in favor of Donald Sutherland.
In that from now on, the American films that the general public will see no longer feature elegant men modeled by the studios, but rather young actors with unique faces, like Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and , yes, Donald Sutherland.
That is sure Don’t Look Now, where he and Julie Christie form a bereaved couple wandering in a gloomy Venice, which established him in 1973 as a leading actor. If Nicolas Roeg’s film, innovative in some of its narrative and editing techniques, has lost none of its hypnotic charge, it is largely thanks to the haunted compositions of the two stars.
In any case, it is this new status which makes the producer Alberto Grimaldi impose Donald Sutherland on Federico Fellini for his Casanovain 1976, when the maestro intended the role for his favorite actor, Marcello Mastroianni — a more obvious choice.
However, with his partly shaved head and the singularity of his features exacerbated by prosthetics, Sutherland composes an unforgettable Casanova, free from clichés, by turns pathetic and touching, deeply melancholic (in tune with the music of Nino Rota).
In short, by his mere presence, the actor transforms the popular seducer into another of those outsiders whose secret he has.
What is also, deep down, his father in mourning for a son in Ordinary People, in 1980. In fact, this “ordinary” man must ultimately distance himself from his partner when he understands that the latter will never forgive their other son for having outlived their favorite elder. In the end, he joins said unloved son on the outskirts of the sacrosanct family unit.
Ultimately, his participation in Bethune: The Making of a Heroby Phillip Borsos, in the role of the famous – and non-conformist – Canadian surgeon who left for China, goes without saying…
No small roles
From the mid-1980s, and for the rest of his long career, Donald Sutherland specialized in supporting roles, which he was fortunate to make memorable.
Overall, we will remember his serious but caring priest in Heaven Help Usby Michael Dinner, by his prison director who makes Sylvester Stallone drool in Lock Upby John Flynn, of his mysterious Mr. JFKby Oliver Stone, by his arsonist in Backdraftby Ron Howard, his vampire-slaying mentor in Buffy the Vampire Slayerby Fran Rubel Kuzui, by his bourgeois art dealer in Six Degrees of Separationof Fred Schepisi, of his manipulative business manager in Disclosureby Barry Levinson, from his retired astronaut in Space Cowboysby Clint Eastwood, of his patriarch proud of the beautiful spirit of his daughter in Pride and Prejudiceby Joe Wright, and, of course, by his ruthless president Coriolanus Snow in the saga Hunger Games.
Speaking of which, Donald Sutherland was not intimidated by unsympathetic characters. In his tribute to his father on X, actor Kiefer Sutherland mentions him: “I believe, personally, that he is one of the most important actors in the history of cinema. Never intimidated by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and you could hardly ask for more. »
The example of Donald Sutherland seems in any case to have inspired his offspring: his sons Kiefer and Rossif Sutherland are actors, his son Angus Sutherland is a producer, and his granddaughter Sarah Sutherland is an actress. Since 1972, he was married to Quebec actress Francine Racette.
