The Hunger Games’ Actor Donald Sutherland Dies at 88

The Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, star of films including The Hunger Games and Don’t Look Now, has died at 88 after a long illness.

About Donald Sutherland

Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Sutherland started as a radio news reporter before travelling to London in 1957 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He then took on small roles in British film and television. His earliest high-profile roles were in war films including 1967’s The Dirty Dozen, and Kelly’s Heroes from 1970. The 1970s also saw Sutherland play an IRA member in The Eagle Has Landed, a pot-smoking college professor in National Lampoon’s Animal House and the lead in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

His achievement

In the 1980s, he played the father of a suicidal teenager in the Oscar-winning Ordinary People. He turned to television in the 2000s, appearing in such series as Dirty Sexy Money and Commander-in-Chief. Despite his numerous roles, he was never nominated for an Oscar. He did receive an honorary Academy Award in 2017. Sutherland was known for his political activism throughout his career, and protested against the Vietnam war alongside Fonda. He also channeled his beliefs into some of his roles, including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, where he played the tyrannical President Snow.

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalled feeling “deeply, deeply star-struck” when he first met Sutherland.