RIP Donald Sutherland

RIP to Donald, who was always good in everything he did and is the patriach of what has to be the most blue-collar acting family in the business. The Hollywood Reporter obit has a great line from Donald about how even his Mom said his face had "character." Kiefer was a post-Brat Packer who was about to marry Julia Roberts, and the she left him for his best buddy Jason Patric (possibly b/c Kiefer was screwing around with a stripper, which is also a very blue-collar thing to do) and Kiefer bounced around for a while until mounting a comeback with "24," where he took an absolute beating making what amounted to a movie every week for nine seasons. And now he's more of a musician than an actor (though to be fair, being a rich & famous actor makes it possible to become a musician in your 50s).

 

Loved him in Space Cowboys.

 

And excellent in the Hunger Games series.

 

The first Hawkeye Pierce on screen.

Funny, I never saw the M*A*S*H movie, except for brief clips, until maybe 10 years ago; I always thought Eliot Gould was Hawkeye and Sutherland Trapper John.

 

They did offer him the role. He turned it down because, basically, he didn’t want to play a heartless asshole like Phillip Bauer.

 

RIP Professor Jennings

 

My eyes were scarred for life when I saw his ass in Animal House.

RIP to a great actor.

 

Oooh, forgot about that one. Great call.

 

Not to be missed is Keifer playing his dad in Dark City.

Seconding all the other great films mentioned.

 

He played Hawkeye one way, Alda played Hawkeye another way, and they both made it work in their own fashion.

But I'll always think the laconic Sutherland version was the real Hawkeye.