Summary

Donald Sutherland, despite never winning an Oscar, delivered unforgettable performances that were overlooked by Academy voters.
Sutherland’s subtle and textured acting in
Ordinary People
highlighted themes of grief without artificial sentimentality.
While Sutherland deserved more than an honorary Oscar, his legacy of great performances transcends awards recognition.

Donald Sutherland had such a distinguished acting career that most assume he won at least one competitive Academy Award throughout his illustrious career. The fact that he never even received an Oscar nomination seems unfathomable and represents one of the most glaring oversights in Academy history. One probable reason Sutherland, who won two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, never received an Oscar nomination was that he was the rare actor who made his craft look easy. The subtle depth and versatility that he brought to disparate genres and roles established him as an actor who was equally effective when emotional or subdued.

Sutherland was most egregiously overlooked for an Oscar nomination for his powerful, vital performance in the 1980 drama film Ordinary People, in which he plays Calvin Jarrett, a caring father, and husband who is forced to reexamine his entire life after his oldest son is killed in a boating accident and his youngest son, Conrad, attempts suicide. While Ordinary People, which received six Oscar nominations and won Best Director and Best Picture, received Oscar nominations for the performances of Timothy Hutton, who won an Oscar for his performance as Conrad, and Mary Tyler Moore as Calvin’s emotionally detached wife, Beth, and even Judd Hirsch as Conrad’s psychiatrist, Sutherland was conspicuously overlooked.

While this omission was inexplicable and unfair, it’s also a testament to the ease with which Sutherland’s subtle, textured performance in Ordinary People highlights the film’s core themes of grief and guilt without ever having to rely on the kind of artificial sentimentality that Academy voters seem to find irresistible.

Donald Sutherland Was Overlooked for Several Oscar-Worthy Performances

Donald Sutherland first gained stardom with his performance as surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the classic 1970 war comedy film M*A*S*H. This film is considered to be one of the greatest ever made, in large part due to the wonderful comedic screen chemistry between Sutherland and co-star Elliott Gould. However, while M*A*S*H received five Academy Award nominations, including a Best Picture nomination and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Sally Kellerman, his recognition for his invaluable performance in the film was relatively muted compared to that of the film.

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This trend continued with the 1971 thriller Klute, in which he stars as the film’s titular character, John Klute, a private detective who establishes a relationship with a prostitute, played by Jane Fonda while investigating a corporate executive’s disappearance. The heart of Klute isn’t the thriller plot but rather the deepening relationship between Klute and the prostitute, Bree Daniel, whom Klute tries to protect from a mysterious serial killer while falling in love with her. While the steely competence that Sutherland brings to this performance is essential to the film’s success, only Fonda received an Oscar nomination, which resulted in Fonda’s first Academy Award.

Ordinary People Is Anchored By Sutherland’s Performance

The central conflict in Ordinary People, which was directed by Robert Redford, is grounded in Donald Sutherland’s delicate, sensitive performance as Calvin Jarrett, an affluent tax attorney who is struggling to deal with the aftermath of his oldest son’s death in a boating accident and his younger son’s suicide attempt. As this domestic crisis intensifies in the film, he serves as an intermediary between his wife, Beth, played by Mary Tyler Moore, and their surviving son, Conrad, who blames himself for his brother’s death.

Before the film reveals the source of this crisis, Beth and Calvin seem like an outwardly happy, well-adjusted couple. They go out. They laugh. They make love. However, the pleasant exterior they project early in the film reflects their attempt to deny the problems within their superficially beautiful suburban existence. This is especially apparent in Beth, whose ability to love seemingly died alongside her prized older son.

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As Ordinary People opens with Calvin, who previously spent time inside a psychiatric hospital, embarking on a journey of self-discovery, while Beth’s worsening condition has almost reached a point of no return, it is Calvin who changes and grows the most throughout the film. In perhaps the film’s most important scene, Beth enters their dining room and finds a weeping Calvin, who scolds Beth for seemingly burying her capacity for love with the death of their oldest son and then questions whether he loves her anymore. Sutherland’s performance here is so genuine and heartbreaking that he deserved an Oscar nomination for this scene alone.

Sutherland Deserved More Than an Honorary Oscar

Donald Sutherland received his honorary Academy Award in 2017 at the Governors Awards ceremony, in which Jennifer Lawrence, who co-starred with Sutherland in The Hunger Games film series, effusively praised the actor while also expressing a sense of incredulity as to why he, with his impressive body of work, had never won a competitive Oscar, much less received a single nomination.

Regardless, the outpouring of tributes that followed the announcement of his death on June 20, 2024, at the age of 88 proves that his legacy of great performances has transcended the recognition he would have enjoyed had he won a competitive Academy Award. This is especially true in Sutherland’s native Canada, where his career success, in which he became one of the first Canadian actors to achieve star status in Hollywood, is a great source of pride. Ordinary People is streaming on Max.