Donald Sutherland dies at 88.

He was that rare thing: a character actor and a star.

Sutherland was a ‘character actor,’ which means he could portray many kinds of people other than himself, rather than a ‘star.’

It is rare to be both, but he was. Christopher Plummer (another Canadian), Anthony Hopkins, James Stewart, and Marlon Brando are other actors like him.

He was a consummate interpretive and creative actor/artist.

Molly Haskell, a former New York Times film critic, refused to comment on his death. She said, “It’s too important.”

Dinner with Donald Sutherland

I spent about five hours at dinner with Donald Sutherland at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto when he was on a press tour for a movie in the seventies.

The hotel’s restaurants were called ‘Three Small Rooms.’ We were in the smallest by ourselves. I interviewed him that afternoon; we got along well, and he invited me to dinner.

I can’t remember what we ate, but we discussed education, theatre, films, acting, books, travel, food, marriage, Canada, and baseball. (He was a Montreal Expos fan).

I do remember we had two bottles of one of the most expensive wines in the hotel’s cellar.