After a protracted illness, actor Donald Sutherland, who starred in movies such as The Hunger Games and Don't Look Now, passed away at the age of 88. The actor Kiefer Sutherland, his son, released a statement announcing his father's passing.
An overwhelming amount of support and tributes to Donald Sutherland were received after the announcement.
"With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film," he said.
"Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived."
On Instagram, actor Cary Elwes expressed his "devastation."
"Our hearts are breaking for you," he wrote in a comment to Kiefer. "So grateful to have known & worked with him. Sending our love."
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, discussed Sutherland's passing during a press conference in Westville, Nova Scotia.
He remembers his initial impression of Sutherland as being "deeply, deeply starstruck."
"My thoughts go out to Kiefer and the entire Sutherland family, as well as all Canadians who are no doubt saddened to learn, as I am right now," he said.
"He was a man with a strong presence, a brilliance in his craft and truly, truly a great Canadian artist," he added.
Ron Howard, who helmed Sutherland's 1991 action movie Backdraft, paid homage to the actor on X, the platform that was once known as Twitter.
"One of the most intelligent, interesting & engrossing film actors of all time," he wrote. "Incredible range, creative courage & dedication to serving the story & the audience with supreme excellence."
Sutherland's resume included around 200 credits, including movies such as MAS*H, Klute, and The Dirty Dozen.
Sutherland, a Canadian native originally from New Brunswick, began his career as a radio news reporter before relocating to London in 1957. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art while he was there.
After that, he started playing little parts in British TV shows and movies.
His early acting gigs were in military-themed movies. He starred in two World War II action movies: The Dirty Dozen (1967) and MAS*H (1970), which was about Korean War doctors.
In Alan J. Pakula's 1971 thriller Klute, starring Sutherland, Jane Fonda played a detective who enlists the help of an expensive call lady to help with a missing person's investigation.
Fonda and him dated for two years before to their breakup.
He also portrayed an IRA member in The Eagle Has Landed, a college lecturer who smokes drugs in National Lampoon's Animal House, and the main character in the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake during the 1970s.
Sutherland portrayed the father of a suicidal adolescent in the Oscar-winning film Ordinary People during the 1980s.
In the 2000s, he made the switch to television, making appearances in shows including Commander-in-Chief and Dirty Sexy Money.
The Canadian actor had several parts, yet he never received an Oscar nomination. In 2017, he was given an honorary Academy Award.
Throughout his career, Sutherland was well-known for his political activity. Alongside Fonda, he denounced the US war in Vietnam. A portion of their work was documented in the 1972 F.T.A. documentary.
In addition, Sutherland incorporated his convictions into a few of his performances, such as the 2015 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. Jennifer Lawrence's character Katniss Everdeen, a heroine who aspired to kill President Snow and free her people, was portrayed by Sutherland as the despotic leader.
In 2015, Sutherland expressed his hope to BBC News that the film's social-political theme will increase the awareness of young viewers of their surroundings. In the movie, an elite class governs the impoverished populace in a society called Panem.
"I have been convinced for the last 30 years that they weren't thinking politically at all," Sutherland said. "The purpose of everybody involved in this was try to get them engaged. As Bruce Springsteen said, 'Blind faith in your leaders… will get you killed.'"
His passing occurs just before his biography, Made Up, But Still True, a book about his own acting experience, is set to be released in November.
One of the major changes Sutherland has observed in the profession during his career, he told BBC News in 2015, is that performers these days are making "a lot of money."
"I don't think anybody of my generation became an actor to make money. It never occurred to me. I made £8 a week here [on stage in London]. When I starred in a play at the Royal Court, I made £17 a week, that was in 1964," he said.
At the time, he said he had no plans to retire from acting.
"It's a passionate endeavor. Retirement for actors is spelled 'DEATH'." he said.
