Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Donald Sutherland trained as an actor in Canada and the United Kingdom before his career took off in the United States. Over a span of 60 years, with his distinctive charisma and features, the actor has taken on numerous roles in theatre, television, and, most notably, cinema. We pay tribute to him by showcasing three films that contributed to his rise to fame in the early 1970s (M.A.S.H., Klute, and Kelly’s Heroes), one of his most emotional performances (Ordinary People), and one of his significant forays into Quebec cinema (Act of the Heart).
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for Jane Fonda in 1972
John Klute, a private detective from Pennsylvania, is sent to New York to investigate the disappearance of his friend Tom Gruneman. Gruneman is said to have written a letter to call girl Bree Daniels, with whom Klute soon falls in love...
Alan J. Pakula
Alan Jay Pakula was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Associated with the New Hollywood movement, his best-known works include his critically-acclaimed "paranoia trilogy": the neo-noir mystery Klute (1971), the conspiracy thriller The Parallax View (1974), and the Watergate scandal drama All the President's Men (1976). His other notable films included Comes a Horseman (1978), Starting Over (1979), Sophie's Choice (1982), Presumed Innocent (1990), and The Pelican Brief (1993). Pakula received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for All the President's Men and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sophie's Choice. He was also nominated for Best Picture for producing To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Pakula's films often dealt with psychological and political themes. His New York Times obituary stated Pakula made "different kinds of movies, all of them intended to entertain, but the thread connecting many of them was a style that emphasized and explored the psychology and motivations of his characters." He was the subject of the 2023 documentary, Alan Pakula: Going for Truth.
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About Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland received an Academy Honorary Award in 2017 "for a lifetime of indelible characters, rendered with unwavering truthfulness".
