Sutherland is one of the most respected, prolific and versatile of motion picture actors, with an astonishing resume of well over 150 films, including such classics as Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen; Robert Altman's M*A*S*H; John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust; Robert Redford's Ordinary People; Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900; Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now with Julie Christie; Alan Pakula's Klute with Jane Fonda; Federico Fellini's Fellini’s Casanova and in Brian Hutton’s Kelly’s Heroes with Clint Eastwood, who later directed him in Space Cowboys.
Sutherland recently completed filming The Leisure Seeker with Helen Mirren for director Paolo Virzi.
Sutherland was producer, screenwriter and star (voicing the lead character, “Captain Johnson”) of Pirate’s Passage, an animated movie based on William Gilkerson’s acclaimed novel, winner of Canada’s Governor General's Award for Children's Literature in 2006. The film recently won the 2016 International Kidscreen Award for “Best Special or TV Movie.”
Sutherland was “President Snow” in all four enormously popular film adaptations of The Hunger Games series. He has appeared as Nicole Kidman’s father in Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain; as Charlize Theron’s father in F. Gary Gray’s The Italian Job and as “Mr. Bennett,” Keira Knightley’s father, in Pride and Prejudice. For the latter, he received a Chicago Film Critics nomination. He starred opposite his son Kiefer in Forsaken, a period Canadian Western, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival.
Sutherland’s extensive film credits include Paul Mazursky’s Alex in Wonderland; Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun; Bud Yorkin’s Start the Revolution Without Me; John Sturges’ The Eagle Has Landed; Herbert Ross’ Max Dugan Returns; Louis Malle’s Crackers; Phillip Borsos’ Bethune; Oliver Stone’s JFK; Ron Howard’s Backdraft; Richard Marquand’s Eye of the Needle; Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season with Marlon Brando; Richard Pearce’s Threshold, for which he won the 1983 Genie Award as Best Actor; Fred Schepisi’s film adaptation of John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation; Robert Towne’s Without Limits; and John Landis’ National Lampoon’s Animal House, in which he made a memorable cameo appearance. He has starred as the voice of “General Stone” in the animated feature of the manga classic, Astro Boy; in Andy Tennant’s Fool’s Gold; in Griffin Dunne’s Fierce People with Diane Lane; in Robert Towne’s Ask the Dust with Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell; in American Gun with Forest Whitaker; in An American Haunting with Sissy Spacek; in Land of the Blind with Ralph Fiennes; in Aurora Borealis with Louise Fletcher and Juliette Lewis; in The Eagle, opposite Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell for director Kevin Macdonald; in Simon West’s The Mechanic with Jason Statham and Ben Foster; in Seth Gordon’s Horrible Bosses as Colin Farrell’s father; in Mary McGuckian’s Man on the Train with U2’s Larry Mullen, Jr.; Milton’s Secret, a feature adaptation of Eckhart Tolle’s beloved children’s book; and Measure of a Man, based on Robert Lipsyte’s young adult novel, One Fat Summer.
In television, Sutherland won both Emmy® and Golden Globe® Awards as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the HBO film Citizen X and he won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Clark Clifford, advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, in the HBO historical drama Path to War, directed by the late John Frankenheimer.
Sutherland starred in 2016 in the premiere season of the AT&T Audience crime drama series, Ice; alongside an international cast in Tandem’s action crime series, Crossing Line; and in the highly-successful long form adaptation of Ken Follett’s best-seller, The Pillars of the Earth. Sutherland co-starred with Peter Krause in the ABC-TV series Dirty Sexy Money. For his performance as the family patriarch, “Tripp Darling,” he was nominated for a 2007 Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor. Prior to that, he co-starred with Geena Davis in the ABC drama series Commander-in-Chief, and was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of House Speaker, “Nathan Templeton.” At the same time, he was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor for his performance opposite Mira Sorvino in Lifetime Television’s much-lauded miniseries, Human Trafficking.
On stage, Sutherland starred with Justin Kirk and Julianna Margulies in a sold-out, critically acclaimed, Lincoln Center engagement of Jon Robin Baitz’s Ten Unknowns. For that performance, he received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Best Actor. He also starred in the London, Toronto and Los Angeles productions of Enigmatic Variations, an English language translation (by his son, Roeg Sutherland) of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s French play.
Donald Sutherland was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada in 1978 and a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France five years later. In 2012, he was awarded the highest French honor, the Ordre des Artes et des Lettres.
