Donald Sutherland has died (Picture: Lionsgate/Color Force/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
Actor Donald Sutherland has died aged 88.
The MASH and Hunger Games actor died after a ‘long illness’, his representative confirmed.
His son, actor Kiefer Sutherland, who is best known for his role in TV series 24 and films Phone Booth and The Three Musketeers, said his father had ‘a life well lived’.
Sharing a black and white photo of himself as a child with his father on X, he wrote: ‘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. 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.’
The star was best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in MASH, as well as in Don’t Look Now, Animal House, and more recently, as President Snow in The Hunger Games franchise.
He died aged 88 after a ‘long illness’ (Picture: Nicolas Liponne/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Sutherland rose to fame after Don’t Look Down in 1973 (Picture: Glasshouse Images/REX/Shutterstock)
His son Kiefer announced his death on X
Over his decades-long career, he received numerous awards including an Emmy, two Golden Globes and a Critics Choice, as well as an Academy Honorary Award in 2017.
Sutherland, born in 1935 in Canada, moved to London in 1957 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, known as Lamda.
In the 1960s, he began his acting career with small roles in British film and TV programmes, before finding fame in 1967 war film The Dirty Dozen.
He then appeared in war drama MASH as Captain Kawkeye, a film that earned five Oscar nominations, and another war movie, Kelly’s Heroes, as Sergeant Oddball in 1970 alongside Clint Eastwood.
He had a decades-long career in the spotlight, most recently known for his role as President Snow in The Hunger Games franchise (Picture: Lionsgate/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
He starred in Animal House in 1978 (Picture: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
He won an Academy Honorary Award in 2017 (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
He then moved to Hollywood, and starred opposite Jane Fonda in 1971 thriller Klute.
Throughout the 1970s, his acting career took off with the release of Don’t Look Now in 1973, which saw him nominated for a Bafta award for Best Actor.
He starred alongside Sean Connery in The First Great Train Robbery, and alongside Sylvester Stallone in Lock Up.
‘I love to work. I passionately love to work,’ Sutherland said in 1998.
Sutherland’s son Kiefer paid tribute (Picture: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Sutherland spoke of his love and passion for his career (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)
‘I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me.
‘I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.’
Sutherland was married three times, and had five children, son Kiefer and daughter Rachel from his second marriage, and three sons, Roeg, Rossif and Angus, with his third wife.
He is survived by his wife Francine Racette, five children and four grandchildren.
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