I met Donald Sutherland, very briefly, in 1998 during my days of wrangling creature effects at Steve Johnson's XFX.
It was a tough assignment, a sci-fi horror movie about alien robots overtaking a Russian science vessel. Donald played the unhinged captain of a salvage ship that finds the derelict robot-infested boat. Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred. We built all the smaller robots and the grisly gore effects, including walking human-cyborg puppets.
We had to turn Donald into a cybernetic reanimated corpse, and we had strict instructions what we could do to him, on a very punishing schedule. I had to get up before dawn on a freezing foggy morning to get everything ready, including putting up signs on the street to direct Mr. Sutherland’s driver to our remote Sun Valley studio location.
I was still stapling signs to telephone poles along the street when the studio's limousine arrived out of the fog, early! I waved them in and then had to sprint to catch up because it was my job to welcome him, sign him in and give him coffee or anything he needed. Just as I caught up with the limo, winded, I saw the door open and Donald stepped out seemingly in slow motion, his long overcoat billowing, the lights of the limo illuminating the fog in a ghostly manner. “Good morning, Mister Sutherland,” I blurted. And I ushered him in. He was all business, and didn’t seem too happy to be there, submitting to full body and head life-cast impressions, which we needed to create his multistage prosthetics.
Normally, that process can take hours, sometimes a whole day. We assigned our crack team of most-experienced artists and got him out of there, I believe, in about 45 minutes. A record. Donald was amazed and impressed. We took some pride in that, as he was an intimidating fellow.
But what an extraordinary career. M*A*S*H, Kelly’s Heroes, Dirty Dozen, Klute, Don’t Look Now, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Casanova, Ordinary People, Animal House, JFK, Backdraft… — every role unique.
He was a magician! An unforgettable screen presence.
*Special thanks to Matt Ullman for his portrait of Mr. Sutherland captured on that foggy morning.
Comments