Donald Sutherland has passed away. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Sutherland had been battling an undisclosed illness for quite some time. Sutherland was a rare, once-in-a-lifetime actor who transcended any one particular role. People of all ages can ascribe a recognizable role to Sutherland. To some, he was Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H. To others, he was President Snow in the Hunger Games film franchise.
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Sutherland's one of the best actors to never win an Academy Award. He would eventually receive an Academy Honorary Award in 2017, but despite the complexity of his characters and the tonal range of his performances, he wasn't formally recognized for any one of his roles.
In an interview with GQ, Sutherland would admit to having never read any of the Hunger Games books before perfectly encapsulating the menacing President Snow.
"I hadn't read the books. To be truthful, I was unaware of them. But they showed my letter to the director, Gary Ross, and he thought it'd be a good idea if I did it. He wrote those wonderfully poetic scenes in the rose garden, and they formed the mind and wit of Coriolanus Snow."
Donald Sutherland Has Passed Away, Leaving Behind A Remarkable Legacy
Born in Canada, Sutherland received his first-ever film offer in 1962. When he auditioned for it, he went home to his wife, simply saying, "I thought I did okay." But the following day, he received the surprise of his life.
"The next morning they were all on the phone saying how wonderful the audition had been. And then the producer said, 'We loved you so much, we wanted to explain why we weren't casting you. We've always thought of this as a guy-next-door sort of character, and we don't think you look like you've ever lived next door to anybody.'"
Unfortunately, Sutherland would seemingly be haunted by that stigma for years to come. After years of appearing in films and shows, Sutherland finally got an iota of justice with the Academy Honorary Award.
In his acceptance speech, he appeared to settle on the depths of his own artistic genius. "I finally found peace in the words of the great Benjamin Kubelsky, who is also known as Jack Benny, when he said, as I say to you now: 'I don't deserve this, but I have arthritis, and I don't deserve that either.'"
