July 17, 2010. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

From Klute to Cold Mountain, actor Donald Sutherland is still in demand at 75
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, July 17, Graphic News:  His rangy good looks, tall frame and soft, Canadian drawl have been familiar to filmgoers for over 40 years. His leading ladies have included Jane Fonda, with whom he had an off-screen relationship, Julie Christie and Mary Tyler Moore. While Time magazine has dubbed him "one of the world's Great Sexies", the last decade has brought a rich crop of character roles, several playing father to the current generation's top actresses, such as Nicole Kidman, Keira Knightley and Charlize Theron. "I've been able to play a lot of guys," Sutherland has said of his long career, "and they've kept me working."
 
A notable exception -- and the one screen dad he has refused to play -- is Jack Bauer's father in the hit TV series 24, starring his own son, Kiefer. The pair discussed the idea, but the script called for a violent relationship, which Sutherland senior did not want to portray. He is hugely proud of his eldest boy and claims to have watched every episode of 24. He also wrote to him every other day when Kiefer served a jail sentence two years ago, for drink driving.
 
Born in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Sutherland studied Engineering and Drama at the University of Toronto. He chose to pursue acting, but had a slow start until a last-minute replacement was needed for a war movie which turned out to be a classic. Or, as Sutherland himself has put it: "I had a kind of meandering little career, and then I was given a chance to play one of the bottom six in The Dirty Dozen." Working alongside veterans such as Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson, Sutherland got his break. His next film, the Korean-war satire, M.A.S.H., saw him take the lead as Hawkeye, the character immortalised by Alan Alda in the long-running TV spin-off. The same year -- 1970 -- saw the release of Kelly's Heroes, another action-packed soldier drama. And then came the title role in Klute (1971), in which Sutherland memorably played a detective hunting the killer of a prostitute with the help of the victim's friend, Bree (Jane Fonda). 
 
With his career up and running, Sutherland found himself working with the foremost directors of his day; Fellini, Louis Malle and Robert Altman. The Venice-based thriller, Don't Look Now (1973), directed by Nicolas Roeg, has since achieved cult status, with its gripping plot and famously bold sex scene. Robert Redford, making his directorial debut, cast Sutherland as the father in the emotional family tale, Ordinary People (1980), a film which won critical acclaim and went on to take four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In A Dry White Season (1989), set in apartheid-torn South Africa, Sutherland shared the billing with Marlon Brando in one of the screen legend's last outings, while Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) saw him informing on the president as the sinister Mr X. More recent roles include Jane Austen's patriarchal Mr Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (2005), directed by Joe Wright.
 
Father to five children -- Kiefer has a twin sister, Rachel, while three younger sons, Roeg, Rossif and Angus Redford are all part-named in tribute to his directors -- Sutherland has been with his third wife, the actress Francine Racette, since 1972, though the couple only married after nearly 20 years together. Sutherland has received the Order of Canada medal, the country's highest civilian award, for services to his profession.
/ENDS