Donald Sutherland - Early Work

Early Work

In the early-to-mid-1960s, Sutherland began to gain small parts in British films and TV. He featured alongside Christopher Lee in horror films such as Castle of the Living Dead (1964) and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), appeared in a 1967 episode of The Avengers entitled "The Superlative Seven" and twice appeared in the TV series The Saint, firstly in the 1965 episode "The Happy Suicide" and then, more auspiciously, in the episode "Escape Route" at the end of 1966. "Escape Route" was directed by the show's star, Roger Moore, who later recalled that Sutherland "asked me if he could show it to some producers as he was up for an important part... they came to view a rough cut at the studio and he got The Dirty Dozen". Sutherland was then on course for the first of the three war films which would make his name: as one of the The Dirty Dozen in 1967, alongside Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson; as the lead "Hawkeye" Pierce in Robert Altman's MASH in 1970; and, again in 1970, as hippy-like tank commander Sgt. Oddball in Kelly's Heroes, alongside Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas. In 1968, after the breakthrough in UK-made The Dirty Dozen, Sutherland left London for Hollywood.