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In the early 1960s, Sutherland began to get small parts in British film and TV, in the mid 1960s getting notable roles in horror films with Christopher Lee such as Castle of the Living Dead (1964), and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965). His first great successes came with the three war films The Dirty Dozen in 1967 with Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, in 1970 as the lead Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H and as tank commander Sgt. Oddball in Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas. Sutherland had an intimate relationship (on and off-screen) with actress Jane Fonda, during the filming of the Academy award-winning detective thriller Klute.

Sutherland and Fonda went on to co-produce and star together in the anti-Vietnam war film F.T.A. (1972) consisting of a series of sketches performed outside army bases in the Pacific Rim and interviews with the American troops who were then on active service. Sutherland found himself in demand as a leading man throughout the 1970s in films such as the Venice-based psychological horror Don't Look Now (1973), the war film The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and as the ever optimistic health inspector in the sci-fi horror Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) alongside Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum. He also had a small role as the pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978.

He also received acclaim for his performances in the 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci Italian fascism epic 1900 and for the role as the torn father in the Academy award-winning family drama Ordinary People (1980) alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton.

He played the part of fellow countryman, Canadian Norman Bethune, a physician, humanitarian and hero in China, in two separate biographical films in 1977 and 1990. A prolific actor, some of Sutherland's better-known roles in the 1980s and 1990s were the South African apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1989) alongside Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon; the fire fighter thriller Backdraft (1991) alongside Kurt Russell and De Niro; and as the snobbish NYC art dealer in Six Degrees of Separation (1993) with Stockard Channing and Will Smith. In the 1991 Oliver Stone film, JFK, Sutherland played a mysterious Washington intelligence officer who spoke of links to the military-industrial complex in relation to Kennedy's assassination. He also guest starred in The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast".

In more recent years, Sutherland has been noted for his role as the Reverend Monroe in the civil war drama Cold Mountain (2003), in the re-make of The Italian Job (2003), in the TV series Commander in Chief (2005) and in Pride and Prejudice (2005) starring alongside Keira Knightley. He earned an Emmy nomination in 2006 for his performance in the TV movie "Human Trafficking".

Sutherland will also be starring in the prime-time serial, Dirty Sexy Money, for ABC. Sutherland's distinctive voice was also used in many radio and television commercials, including those for Volvo automobiles. He is also the spokesperson for Simply Orange orange juice.

(wikipedia.org)