Star of 'M*A*S*H' and 'The Hunger Games', dead at 88

New York: Donald Sutherland, one of Canada's most versatile and gifted actors, who charmed and enthralled audiences in movies such as "M*A*S*H," "Klute," "Ordinary People" and "The Hunger Games," has died at the age of 88.

The actor, whose lengthy career spanned from the 1960s into the 2020s, died on Thursday, his son, actor Kiefer Sutherland, said on social media. A tall man with a deep voice, piercing blue eyes and a mischievous smile, Donald Sutherland switched effortlessly from character roles to romantic leads opposite the likes of Jane Fonda and Julie Christie. He also played his share of oddballs and villains.

One of the biggest stars in Hollywood in the 1970s, he remained in demand for film and TV projects into his 80s. Known for his unconventional looks and his versatility as an actor, Sutherland played a wide range of memorable characters.

These included a rascally Army surgeon in "M*A*S*H" (1970), a quirky tank commander in "Kelly's Heroes" (1970), a small-town detective in "Klute" (1971), a stoned and libidinous professor in "Animal House" (1978), a local official facing an alien presence in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978) and a despairing father in "Ordinary People" (1980). He won a new generation of fans with his glorious portrayal of a despotic president in "The Hunger Games" (2012) and its sequels.

"I wish I could say thank you to all of the characters that I've played, thank them for using their lives to inform my life," Sutherland said in his speech accepting an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 2017.

Kiefer Sutherland said his father was "never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly." "He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived," Kiefer Sutherland wrote on X. Donald Sutherland was born on July 17, 1935, in Canada's New Brunswick province, and was raised in Nova Scotia. He performed in school productions in college, moved to Britain to hone his craft, then moved to the United States, where his first big break came as a member of a top-notch ensemble cast in the war film "The Dirty Dozen" (1967).

In the "Hunger Games" films in the 2010s about a dystopian future in which teenagers are sent into a deadly competition as mass entertainment, he reveled in playing the villainous President Coriolanus Snow.

"The reality was he had a country to run. At least he was running it, which is more than you can say for some people," Sutherland told the Los Angeles Times in 2017. "It was funny at the beginning with 'The Hunger Games' to walk through an airport and suddenly you feel this tug and you look down and it's some young person - always a girl, never a boy," Sutherland said. "And her mother is standing there and they say, 'Could you take a photograph with my daughter?' And we'd be standing beside each other and I'd be looking at the camera and the girl would say, 'Could you look mean?'"

Tributes to Sutherland came in across Hollywood and Canada on Thursday. Ron Howard, who directed Sutherland in "Backdraft," called him "one of the most intelligent, interesting and engrossing film actors of all time." Sutherland had "incredible range, creative courage & dedication to serving the story & the audience with supreme excellence," Howard wrote on X. Sutherland was considered among the best actors to never receive an Academy Award nomination for any of his roles. He was married three times and had five children, including Kiefer.

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The Dirty Dozen (1967)

In his first big screen role, Sutherland starred alongside Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson in Robert Aldrich's film set in World War II.

'M*A*S*H (1970)

Sutherland's star turn in the anti-war black comedy hit "M*A*S*H", directed by Robert Altman, as snarky, charming US Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce brought him wider recognition.

Klute (1971)

Sutherland starred as enigmatic small-town private detective John Klute, who gets entangled with a New York call girl (Jane Fonda) as he hunts for a missing man in this suspense thriller directed by Alan J. Pakula. The film is the highlight of Sutherland's partnership, both private and professional, with Fonda, who won an Oscar for her work.

JFK (1991)

In Oliver Stone's biopic, Sutherland played the chilling role of X, a shadowy intelligence figure who gives crucial information to a district attorney (Kevin Costner) investigating the politics surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The Hunger Games (2012)

Sutherland glowered as the tyrannical President Coriolanus Snow, ruling over a post-apocalyptic state, in this blockbuster film and its sequels, delivering what The Hollywood Reporter called a "sinister performance".