In Memoriam: Donald Sutherland – 1935-2024

Donald Sutherland has passed away at the respectable age of 88. It’s not surprising that older people pass away. My own father passed away just a few weeks ago as well. But still, you can never truly anticipate the effect it will have on you. You can try and rationalize it. That they lived a full life doing what they loved. That they suffer from illness no more and so on. But at the end of the day, there’s still some mourning to do, at least in my case. And although Donald Sutherland was a favorite actor of mine I realize that I’ve seen surprisingly few movies with him. At least movies that I am aware of him being a part of.

A selected few actors can camouflage themselves and become the part they’re portraying to the level that they become invisible. Donald Sutherland was such an actor. You never really thought about him as an actor. He just participated in the movies and nailed it. Every time. I guess I first started noticing him in the great anti-war film MASH, which later became a television hit with Alan Alda taking over the part Donald Sutherland brilliantly portrayed in the movie. I also have very fond memories of him from the TV movie Citizen X about the Russian serial killer Andrei Chikalito. Al movi where neither he nor our Swedish actor legend Max Von Sydow contributes major parts.

But it’s silly to keep mentioning movies and series he has been a part of during his 60-something-year career. It will just become one rabbit hole after another and the result will be just stating the obvious. The world has lost one of the great true acting talents!

Thank you for every great role, it has been a pleasure – Rest in Peace!