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June 20th, 2024

Donald Sutherland has died

Donald Sutherland, the iconic Canadian actor, has passed away at 88. His son, Kiefer Sutherland, praised his legacy. Colleagues, fans, and world leaders expressed condolences. Sutherland's prolific career and activism are remembered.

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Donald Sutherland has died

Donald Sutherland, the Canadian actor known for his roles in films like The Hunger Games and M*A*S*H, has passed away at the age of 88 after battling a long illness. His son, Kiefer Sutherland, paid tribute to him, highlighting his impact on the film industry. Sutherland, with nearly 200 credits to his name, was praised by colleagues and fans for his talent and dedication to his craft. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden were among those who expressed their condolences. Sutherland's career spanned over half a century, with notable performances in various genres. He was also recognized for his political activism and received an honorary Academy Award in 2017. Throughout his career, Sutherland remained passionate about acting and had no plans to retire. His memoir, "Made Up, But Still True," is set to be published posthumously in November. The entertainment industry mourns the loss of a legendary actor whose work left a lasting impact on audiences worldwide.

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Link Icon 55 comments
By @holden_nelson - 4 months
Goes to show how prolific he was that every top level comment in this thread is someone naming their favorite movie of his, and in every comment it’s a different movie
By @dang - 4 months
I liked him playing Wilhelm Reich (with a dash of Einstein) in Kate Bush's 'Cloudbusting'. A masterpiece of nonverbal performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pllRW9wETzw

Edit: btw, that youtube page has great comments from people who worked on the video.

Edit 2: this is a surprisingly good article about it: https://people.com/how-donald-sutherland-ended-up-in-kate-bu...

Edit 3: and apparently he did it for free - https://twitter.com/DeusExCinema/status/1803855249741934709

By @major505 - 4 months
To me the 2 movies that defined him was the remake of Invasion of The Body Snatchers (that scene on the end still hunts me) and The Eye OF the Needle, where he interprets a German Spy called Fabber that discovery about Operation Double Cross and tries to reach a german U-Boat with the info.
By @W-Stool - 4 months
Donald Sutherland as "Hawkeye Pierce" in M.A.S.H. made such an impression on when I saw this movie on its release as a very young teenager. I've pretty much never got along with authority since.

RIP Donald Sutherland.

By @jays - 4 months
As a kid, I watched Kelly's Heroes whenever it was on TV and loved him in it.

It was a joy to see him in so many movies throughout the years. He always elevated everything he was in. Great actor.

By @aliasxneo - 4 months
I'm younger, so my first introduction to him was Hunger Games, and that's where I started following him as an actor. A great career all around. Was happy to see him in Bass Reeves, but sad to know that was his last piece (if IMDB is accurate).
By @ravieira - 4 months
Great actor. My favorite movie with him will always be the spooky Don't Look Now (1973) with Julie Christie.

Edit: originally had written the year as 1873!

By @Cyphase - 4 months
A bunch of his movies went through my mind (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ...), but since nobody has mentioned it, The Italian Job (2003) (another remake).

He had a small amount of screen time, and maybe I'm just thinking about it because I like the movie generally, but I like the way he played the character for the short time he was on screen.

"I feel so optimistic.."

"Fine? You know what fine stands for, don't ya? ... Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. .. See those columns behind you? ... That's where they used to string up thieves who felt fine."

By @whalesalad - 4 months
The first movie I really remember seeing him in was Virus. By all accounts it is a pretty bad movie, but I liked it a lot as a kid and it scared the crap out of me.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120458/

By @tracker1 - 4 months
I've seen him in a few movies, often as an extra. One of my favs has to be "Space Cowboys" ... will probably (re)watch MASH and Space Cowboys this weekend in remembrance.
By @Triphibian - 4 months
Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves?
By @lsllc - 4 months
I think "The Eagle Has Landed" is my all time favorite Donald Sutherland movie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eagle_Has_Landed_(film)

By @maroonblazer - 4 months
"Ordinary People" is an incredible film, with top-notch performances by DS, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, and a young Timothy Sutton. Highly recommend.

RIP Donald Sutherland.

By @JustARandomGuy - 4 months
Surprised nobody has mentioned it, but my favorite movie of his was Pride and Prejudice 2005 edition. He plays the father role extremely well - you can feel the emotion in the room.

Going to have to rewatch it this weekend in his honor.

By @karaterobot - 4 months
The first image I have of Donald Sutherland is his character in The Great Train Robbery, which I think is a mostly forgotten movie which, for some reason, I was obsessed with as a teenager. Later, MASH and Kelly's Heroes, of course. He'll be missed, but his enormous catalog is a testament to his versatility.
By @crims0n - 4 months
Since everyone is mentioning movies and television, I’ll go against the grain and mention his narration of Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea”. It’s a relatively short audiobook and he does a fantastic job.
By @toomuchtodo - 4 months
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Sutherland

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000661/

By @OldSchool - 4 months
"Six Degrees of Separation" with Donald Sutherland and Will Smith was the first relatively arthouse movie I saw and it introduced me to the genre.
By @lrc - 4 months
The brief appearance in Animal House is a little gem.
By @Kye - 4 months
Bluesky feed for remembrances: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qrllvid7s54k4hnwtqxwetrf/fe...
By @pdonis - 4 months
I liked his role as the pyromaniac in Backdraft.
By @0xcde4c3db - 4 months
I never had any real awareness of him as an actor (M.A.S.H was just a few years before my time), but as the best tribute I have at hand, a nugget of trivia:

Dragon Quest VII has a party member named Kiefer, the disobedient prince of the Kingdom of Estard (a wayward prince in Dragon Quest; quelle surprise). In the original game, his father's name was Burns, but the English translators for the 3DS remake decided that "King Donald" sounded better.

By @DaveExeter - 4 months
I'm feeling some negative waves.

https://youtu.be/ncbEucjsNFU?t=73

By @agumonkey - 4 months
Saw him recently in 'A time to kill'. Great presence as always. Somehow he's always been a great addition to any movie cast.
By @RichardCA - 4 months
This one is pretty obscure, he plays an elite open-heart surgeon at a time when the artificial heart seemed like it was just around the corner.

He shows the hubris of trusting technology in a way that was perfect for the early 80's. It's also an example of how cable TV was good for discovering movies in a way we can't really do today.

https://youtu.be/MWJr6r_Vz0g

By @jszymborski - 4 months
As a Canadian, I've always been proud at how readily Donald Sutherland has played cultural ambassador over the years.

If you haven't seen Klute, today is a great day to do so.

By @francisofascii - 4 months
My favorite is him as Bill Bowerman in Without Limits (1998)
By @adamredwoods - 4 months
One of my film history professors worked as a dailies hand on a film with Donald, and told us an anecdote how Donald would look at the dailies on a reel-to-reel Steenbeck-style film editor (pre-digital!). When he did this, he would take a jacket an throw it over his head and around the light-box and watch it in seclusion. A man dedicated to his craft!
By @davidwritesbugs - 4 months
I remember the surprise in seeing him in a very minor role in the 1967 The Billion Dollar Brain. He was playing a tape monkey for a huge mainframe, loading huge reels of magnetic tape into a Honeywell. It was fun to see the genesis of a great man's acting career.
By @should-b-wrkng - 4 months
One of my favorites of his is when he portrayed the protagonist's father in the point-and-click DOS game "KGB: Conspiracy"

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kgb-conspiracy-starring-don...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_(video_game)

By @washywashy - 4 months
He’s very good in backdraft
By @randombits0 - 4 months
Don’t hit me with those negative waves so early in the morning!
By @pentagrama - 4 months
I find it odd that I don't recall ever watching a movie with Donald Sutherland. MASH is one of the few Robert Altman films I still need to watch, so here we go.
By @lowkey - 4 months
Little known fact. He wasn't just an amazing Canadian. He was a Maritimer, born and raised in my home town, Saint John, New Brunswick.
By @throwaway81523 - 4 months
RIP Donald. When I saw the headline I initially confused him with Ivan Sutherland, who is getting up there in years, but thankfully is still with us.
By @seomint - 4 months
A real loss. I've watched and enjoyed so many of his movies over the years. RIP good man.
By @ralusek - 4 months
Time to get grandpa Johann von Wolfhaus's ashes to Munich. Goodnight, popo.
By @2OEH8eoCRo0 - 4 months
Gotta watch M*A*S*H tonight with a martini that's drier than the Sahara Desert.
By @optimalsolver - 4 months
Pillars Of The Earth, anyone?
By @zabzonk - 4 months
oddball: "a sherman [tank] can give you a very nice edge"

one of my favourite quotes.

goodbye, Donald.

By @novosel - 4 months
Fellini's Casanova and his over the top performance.
By @ipqk - 4 months
I guess Elliot Gould is hotter now.
By @richardatlarge - 4 months
Long live Oddball!
By @djsjajah - 4 months
Is the whole internet gaslighting me? Hawkeye was played by Alan Alda and I’m kinda offended that anyone would attribute the role to anyone else but I’ve read a bunch of comments on different websites that make it seem like people remember him as Hawkeye.
By @Brajeshwar - 4 months
“I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust.”
By @devonnull - 4 months
Even in his appearances in not-so-great movies you could tell Sutherland was trying to rise above the material. Actually, I got that impression of him from all of the really good (or just good) movies he was in. Not to mention all of the TV he did, too. Really enjoyed his turn in an episode of The Avengers called "The Superlative Seven".
By @gwern - 4 months
Was briefly concerned until I saw it wasn't Ivan Sutherland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Sutherland
By @BildZeitungNews - 4 months
What has this to do with Hacker News?
By @arp242 - 4 months
Don't worry, they made a copy of him just for this sort of eventuality.
By @nanna - 4 months
Confused him with Ivan Sutherland and got very sad for a moment.

Don't know who Donald Sutherland is.

By @ltbarcly3 - 4 months
Love Donald Sutherland, sad to see him go.

That said, I think this is the signal that it's time to walk away from HN. It used to be a place for people to talk about technology, business, tech startups, and SV culture. Now it's celebrity news.

Bye!