Donald Sutherland passed away in June at the age of 88 after a long, unusual, and widely celebrated career. His performances range from M*A*S*H to Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Don’t Look Now to JFK and, more recently, The Hunger Games. This is to say that he never let himself become limited to one type of character, film, or genre. And, while he could seemingly play any range of character, he always maintained that Sutherland charm. What is the secret of his charm? We asked Daryl Sparkes, Sonny Bunch, and Bobbie O’Steen.
Sparkes is a senior lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland and he wrote “Hollywood Didn’t Know Exactly What to Do with Donald Sutherland – So They Did Everything with Him” for The Conversation. Bunch is a film critic at The Bulwark and writer of “RIP, Donald Sutherland.” O’Steen is a historian and author of books like Making the Cut at Pixar and The Invisible Cut. You can find a great interview she conducted with Don’t Look Now’s editor Graeme Clifford on the film’s Criterion release.
What is your favorite Sutherland performance? Let us know in the comments.
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21. Donald Sutherland's Smile