‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Animal House’ Star Donald Sutherland Dead at 88 After a Long Illness

Donald Sutherland has died at the age of 88.

CAA confirmed to Deadline on Thursday, June 20, that Sutherland — known for his roles M*A*S*H, The Hunger Games, Animal House and more — died after a “long illness.”

The Emmy winner is survived by wife Francine Racette and sons Kiefer, 57, Roeg, 50, Rossif, 45, Angus, 41, and daughter Rachel, 57. (Donlad shares Kiefer and Rachel with ex-wife Shirley Douglas and his other sons withRacette.)

Kiefer, an actor like his father, shared an emotional tribute to Sutherland on Thursday.

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“With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away,” Kiefer wrote via Instagram, sharing a throwback childhood photo. “I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film.”

Kiefer continued, “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.”

Donald got his big break in 1967 when he starred in The Dirty Dozen, three years before joining the cast of M*A*S*H. Donald played Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce in the 1970 Oscar-nominated war film.

Donald also appeared in the likes of Klute, Path to War, 2005’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and The Hunger Games. In the dystopian series, which debuted in 2012, Donald brought President Coriolanus Snow to life. (The Hunger Games was adapted from Suzanne Collins’ best-selling YA novels.)

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“I was at my dermatologist, and she asked me what I was doing next,” Donald previously told Variety in November 2014. “I told her I was about to do something called The Hunger Games. She gasped and started calling everyone into the room, and they all came running. That was my first inkling it might be something big.”

Donald’s tyrannical Snow appeared in The Hunger Games and its three sequels, Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and Mockingjay Part 2. Despite many fans loving to hate Snow, he refused to see the character as a villain.

“He doesn’t kill anyone unless it’s essential,” Donald noted to Variety at the time. “He maintains a tight control, but he’s not a war criminal like so many presidents and people throughout the world who have killed millions.”

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Snow was later the subject of Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes about the character’s early years in Panem. Tom Blyth joined the franchise as a young Coriolanus Snow, aiming to pay homage to Sutherland’s portrayal.

“For me in terms of like nodding towards the other films, or layering that in it, it was all about the arc. I wanted him to be vastly different at the beginning from Coriolanus that we see later on, as played by Donald,” Blyth, 29, told GamesRadar in November 2023. “As the film progresses, in those three acts that are distinctive, he gets more and more close to the future president. By the end, I wanted his posture and his voice to just start to get closer to what he's like later on, and I hope that people can see that in the movie.”