In the category of underappreciated actors, the recently deceased Donald Sutherland looms rather hugely. He’s someone we (yes, I include myself) have all come to take for granted over the years. Now he’s gone and we’re left bereft, albeit with an impressively varied collection of performances.
MASH 1970 (Trailer)
Donald Sutherland never won a competitive Academy Award (having to settle for an honorary Oscar in 2018), but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him give a bad performance. That, bear in mind, is in a career that spanned 62 years and 199 acting roles. Obviously I haven’t seen them all, but I have been watching Sutherland seemingly all my life; I don’t recall him ever not being part of my movie watching diet. Faced with so much good work, turned out at such a notably prolific clip, it seems that I, like most everyone else, became spoiled.
Sutherland’s major attribute as an actor was range. Never precious about his standing in the industry, he alternated between leading man roles and supporting parts in films both high-profile and non, big screen and small, feature length and short subject (such as the 13-minute SLEEPWALKERS from 2006, in which he was billed as “Businessman Struck by a Taxi”). The secret of his success? I’d put it down to an unwavering commitment to truthfulness, as illuminated by a bit of career advice he gave to his son Kiefer: “Don’t lie in your work, because they’ll catch you.”
Sutherland was at various times a sex symbol, having enjoyed a high-profile romance with Jane Fonda and been paired with Julie Christie in what is widely renowned as the greatest soft-core sex scene in film history. Yet he functioned equally well as an everyman, having been cast in the title role of FELLINI’S CASANOVA (1976) because of his unexceptional looks, which fit Federico Fellini’s unorthodox interpretation of Giovanni Casanova. That’s despite a casting director’s lament (as recalled by Sutherland) that “Sorry, you’re the best actor but this part calls for a guy-next-door type. You don’t look as if you’ve ever lived next door to anyone.”
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Standout Donald Sutherland performances? To my mind one such was contained in the 1978 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, in which Sutherland’s everyman qualities were put to especially potent use. That ordinariness is what powers his hapless protagonist, who’s quite befuddled at the uncanny morass in which he finds himself enmeshed—which renders the final shot, in which it’s revealed that the character no longer stands apart from the body snatchers, all the more horrifying.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 1978 (Trailer)
At the other end of the spectrum was Ronald the deranged pyromaniac in BACKDRAFT (1991). The part, played almost entirely behind bars, with the fireman hero (William Baldwin) consulting Ronald about the actions of a currently-on-the-loose pyromaniac, was admittedly “inspired by” a far more iconic movie psychopath, but Sutherland made it work (and reprised it in 2019’s BACKDRAFT 2).
BACKDRAFT 1991 (Trailer)
Continuing with evil characterizations, Sutherland’s role in 1900 (1976) cannot be overlooked. He played a beyond-evil Italian fascist with the very telling name Attila Melanchini, who among other outrages purees a young boy’s brains and head-butts a cat to death. Sutherland’s acting here might be a bit one-dimensional and excessive (it’s the closest I’ve come to seeing him give a bad performance), but it is nonetheless an impressively committed portrayal.
HEAVEN HELP US (1985) was a little-seen Catholic prep school comedy in which Sutherland played the headmaster. Sutherland, as with his famous turn in ANIMAL HOUSE (1978), was on hand primarily to get the movie financed (as its headliners Andrew McCarthy, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dillon and John Heard weren’t name actors at the time), but he had some memorable moments, such as his recitation of the sentence “I’m the headmaster and right now the headmaster is trying to enjoy his dinner.” Hardly one of the great movie quotes of our time, but the drollness of Sutherland’s delivery makes for a memorable line reading.
Scene from ANIMAL HOUSE 1978
LOCK UP (1989) is a long-forgotten Sly Stallone vehicle in which Sutherland essays a pretty standard bad guy role with a great deal of conviction. In the ranks of Stallone movie heavies I say Sutherland’s turn as the evil Warden Drumgoole ranks with Rutger Hauer’s Wulfgar in NIGHTHAWKS and Brian Dennehy’s Teasle in FIRST BLOOD.
Space Cowboys 2000
In SPACE COWBOYS (2000), which saw Sutherland reconnecting onscreen with his KELLY’S HEROES (1970) co-star Clint Eastwood, Sutherland delivered the film’s standout performance as one of a quartet of geezer astronauts (whose ranks included Tommy Lee Jones and James Garner) teaming up for a final mission. The character: a good-natured extrovert with a raging sex drive. Typecasting?
SPACE COWBOYS 2000 (Trailer)
There was also Sutherland’s legendary turn as “X” in JFK (1991), in which he was tasked with detailing the conspiracy-laden narrative in a lengthy monologue that would have defeated most performers, but which Sutherland pulled off with typical elan. This brings up another aspect of Sutherland’s talents: he had a great voice and knew how to modulate it (having done voiceover work for a variety of commercials and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver).
Scene from JFK 1991
And who can forget the Sutherland essayed Hawkeye Pierce in MASH (1970). (See trailer above.) The film has always struck me as a mite overrated, but regarding Sutherland I’ll have to concur with VARIETY’S Owen Gleiberman, who stated that “in 1970, Donald Sutherland…was the coolest movie star on the planet.” I believe a case can be made that he retained that status well into the eighties, nineties and beyond.