Key Points
NEW YORK Donald Sutherland, the Canadian actor whose wry, arrestingly off-kilter screen presence spanned more than half a century of films from M.A.S.H. to The Hunger Games, has died..
Sutherland died Thursday in Miami after a long illness, according to a statement from Creative Artists Agency, which represented him..
The tall and gaunt Sutherland, who flashed a grin that could be sweet or diabolical, was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman's "M.A.S.H.," the hippie tank commander in "Kelly's Heroes" and the stoned professor in "Animal House.".
His breakthrough was "The Dirty Dozen" , in which he played Vernon Pinkley, the officer-impersonating psychopath. 1970 saw the release of the World War II yarn "Kelly's Heroes" and "M.A.S.H.," a smash hit that catapulted Sutherland to stardom..
But Sutherland continued to work steadily and increasingly worked in television, most memorably in HBO's "Path to War," in which he played President Lyndon Johnson's defense secretary, Clark Clifford..
