“Never heard of him.”
Donald Sutherland, the beloved actor who starred in scores of films from The Dirty Dozen, MASH and Klute to Animal House and Ordinary People to Pride & Prejudice and The Hunger Games franchise and won an Emmy for Citizen X, died Thursday in Miami after a long illness. He was 88.
(I must say, I never liked his voice, especially in those orange juice commercials.)
I just bought Invasion of the Body Snatchers……that last scene with him is so classic.
RIP.
Best role was Oddball in Kelly’s Heroes
RIP
Enjoyed his work.
CLINT EASTWOOD had to break the news to his Kelly’s Heroes co-star Donald Sutherland during filming that his wife Shirley Douglas had been arrested for trying to buy explosives for the Black Panthers. This left the Western star on the floor laughing in front of the Oddball actor, who almost died on the Yugoslavia set after seeing ‘the white light’.
At the time, the FBI’s COINTELPRO was working to undermine the Black Panthers and Douglas had been campaigning for American Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War.
She had helped fundraise the group Friends of the Black Panthers but ended up getting arrested in LA after trying to buy hand grenades for the group from an undercover FBI agent using a personal cheque
I loved him in Kelly’s Heroes.
Oddball: Well, the tank’s broke and they’re trying to fix it.
Big Joe: Well, then, why the hell aren’t you up there helping them?
Oddball: [chuckles] I only ride ’em, I don’t know what makes ’em work.
Big Joe: Christ!
Another actor who did pretty good work until he decided to expound on his political philosophy on talk shows. He was a Liberal/Progressive Democrat with dashes of traditional American Conservatism. Strange bird, imo.
His Oddball character was crazy good. He and Kiefer did a western a while back, The Forsaken. I enjoyed the heck out of it. They played off each other really well.
I had just watched “Bear Island” (see the link) recently and was wondering how Donald Sutherland was doing. Not so good it turns out. I liked him in “The Eagle Has Landed” and “MASH” and “The Great Train Robbery.” He always played the charming rogue character well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJspi4lYgjc
I gotta second/third the Kelly’s Heros role of Oddball! He was good in all his movies, but that one sticks out in my mind.
Only HE could make this iconic…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GEStsLJZhzo
RIP, dude who made his money and didnt pretend it made him a god.
Less like THAT every day…
In the late 80’s or early 90’s my grade school daughter made me watch “Oldest Living Confederate Veteran Widow Tell All” starring Sutherland and Diane Lane with her until the magnetic particles wore off the tape. I can still hear his ersatz Southern accent in my head.
Somewhere around 1970, he developed a weird affectation voice like he was in the Canadian version of The Prairie Home Companion.
When I was a sailor (QM2) on the USS Glover, me and Abbie (nickname) Hoffman (OS2) were assigned to assist another ship leaving the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to go to Norfolk,VA. We billed ourselves as the “pros” from Glover in honor of the immortal characters.
In Kelly’s Heroes, I remember Don Rickes shaking his head from Donald Sutherland’s Tank Commander WWII pre-hippie behavior as Oddball.
Only, I think Rickles reaction was real. Sutherland was probably goofy on and off the set from smokin’ it, and maybe from his crazy political beliefs.
Still, I liked Sutherland. Very impressive as Klute, I thought, playing opposite Jane Fonda, the prostitute in the movie.
Too bad he had to share klute with the commie fonda
RIP Donald Sutherland; I enjoyed your work. “Start the Revolution Without Me” co-starring Gene Wilder. IOTBS remake. Oddball. A good actor.
He will be missed in the movie industry but mostly by his many fans of which I remain. RIP and thanks.
Great inspector-general scene in dirty dozen
Don’t forget his cameo in JFK, also the remake of The Italian Job. And of course his voice-overs in the Volvo commercials. He was one of a kind.
He was a damned Commie from the word, “Go”. Always. Since the 60s.
Never liked him, never watched any of his stuff.