Actor Donald Sutherland is one of the old masters who are also known to younger cinema-goers. He is celebrating his 85th birthday.
Canadian Hollywood star Donald Sutherland celebrates his 85th birthday on Friday (July 17). The fact that the old master of his field also knows the young cinema audience is certainly due to the great success of the "Hunger Games" films (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015). In the science fiction adventure series, which is based on the trilogy of the same name by Suzanne Collins (57), Sutherland played the bully and cold-hearted adversary Katniss Everdeen "President Snow".
His figure is also the focus of the new book "The Song of Bird and Snake". However, since it is a prequel and takes place 64 years before the "tribute" events, Sutherland is unlikely to embody the role in the film adaptation already considered. The actor still cannot complain about a lack of employment. Because according to the "Internet Movie Database" some productions like the series "The Undoing" have already been shot with him, others like "Armageddon Time" are in the preparation phase.
A long successful career
Donald Sutherland can look back on a long, persistent and very successful career. He is considered one of the most versatile actors and was awarded the Canadian Order of Merit (1978), two Emmys (1996, 2003) and the Honorary Oscar (2018). In 1970 he made his breakthrough with the satirical comedy "MASH" by director Robert Altman (1925-2006).
Films from all genres followed: "When the gondolas are in mourning" (1973, horror), "A completely normal family" (1980, drama), "JFK – Tatort Dallas" (1991), "The Jury" (1996, justice thriller ), "Space Cowboys" (2000, science fiction), "On the way to Cold Mountain" (2003, film adaptation), "Pride and Prejudice" (2005, film adaptation), "Kill the Boss" (2011, comedy) etc.
His film-ready family
And his private life is also film-ready, Donald Sutherland lives in a true actor clan. He is married in third marriage to Canadian actress Francine Racette (72, "In the Spotlight"). Of the three sons, two are also actors: Angus Sutherland (37, "Welcome, Mrs. President") and Rossif Sutherland (41, "River"). The third, Roeg Sutherland (46), is said to finance films.
The most famous offspring of his Sutherland clan is certainly Kiefer Sutherland (53), who with the series "24" (2001-2010) cleared pretty much everything there is to win in the category. Strictly speaking, he is Donald Sutherland's firstborn, but his twin sister followed just a few minutes later. The mother of the two is the Canadian actress, Shirley Douglas (1934-2020), who died only in April. From 1966 to 1970 they were married in a second marriage. He made the first covenant for life (1959-1966) with Lois Hardwick.
Film star and laid-back father
At the Best Brand Awards 2019 in Munich, Kiefer Sutherland said what life was like with the film star father: "My parents separated when my twin sister and I were around three or four years old. My mother had to go to Canada to get one looking for a new home for us. So we lived with my father for six months. So we came from a very strict mother to a guy who had absolutely no rules, "he said of the circumstances at the time.
His father always drove him and his sister to "kindergarten" in this beautiful, red Ferrari (built in 1959), which he had won in a poker game, "remembers Kiefer Sutherland. "No child seats, two seats, three people. And he had this big bushy beard, really long hair and this cool leather jacket. I was about five years old and I knew he was different. I could tell by the way the other parents did looked at him. I loved that and I loved the car, "enthused Sutherland junior about his childhood with the unconventional father.