--- title: Donald Sutherland: Photos of the Actor and His Family, 1970 description: Photos of Donald Sutherland and his family in 1970, by LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester. canonical: https://time.com/3877630/donald-sutherland-rare-photos-of-the-actor-and-his-family-1970/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-07-11T02:14:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:35.191Z og:title: Donald Sutherland: Photos of the Actor and His Family, 1970 og:description: Photos of Donald Sutherland and his family in 1970, by LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester. og:url: https://time.com/3877630/donald-sutherland-rare-photos-of-the-actor-and-his-family-1970/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59fce89aa87aa33b/6988479306f2c11923339338/01_117202091.jpg?branch=production&width=998&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 998 og:image:height: 561 og:image:alt: Donald Sutherland 1970 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Sutherland: Photos of the Actor and His Family, 1970 twitter:description: Photos of Donald Sutherland and his family in 1970, by LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59fce89aa87aa33b/6988479306f2c11923339338/01_117202091.jpg?branch=production&width=998&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Sutherland: Portrait of an Actor's Actor > Sponsored content. 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Donald Sutherland, 1970 Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 11, 2013 2:14 AM UTC Some actors have been around for so long, and have done so much solid work in so many genres, that’s it’s easy to take for granted just how terrific they really are. [Donald Sutherland](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000661/), who turns 79 on July 17, is one such actor. For almost 50 years, he’s been bringing his unique, engaging intelligence (emotional, and the other kind) to bear on roles so phenomenally diverse that his filmography often reads like a compendium of several actors’ careers. There were the early films, before he became one of Hollywood’s unlikeliest leading men: [_The Dirty Dozen_](http://movies.tvguide.com/the-dirty-dozen/113020), for example, and the costume comedy, _Start the Revolution Without Me_ — two movies that, in every possible way, could not be more different. Then came the Seventies, and the movies and roles that made the Canadian native a bona fide, if un-pigeonhole-able, star: Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman’s _M\*A\*S\*H_. The title character in [_Klute_](http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/19243/Klute/) (playing opposite Jane Fonda, who won her first Oscar for her searing portrait of a call girl—and with whom Sutherland had a brief, intense off-screen romance). Nicolas Roeg’s freaky cult favorite, _Don’t Look Now_, with Julie Christie at her most preposterously beautiful. His astonishing turn as Homer Simpson (not _that_ Homer Simpson) in John Schlesinger’s uneven, riveting 1975 adaptation of Nathanael West’s classic short novel, [_Day of the Locust_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FDay%5Fof%5Fthe%5FLocust%5F%28film%29), about the violence and howling despair always lurking just beneath Hollywood’s glittering surface. And, of course, the 1978 remake that surpassed the classic sci-fi original, _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_. In the ’80s, the ’90s and the 2000s, Sutherland kept working, starring in movies of wildly varying quality, but always leaving a mark—sometimes with an entire performance; sometimes with a gesture; sometimes with a wholly unexpected (but perfect) delivery of a line and an arching of those famous eyebrows. _Ordinary People_, _Eye of the Needle_, _Six Degrees of Separation_, _Pride and Prejudice_, right up to _The Hunger Games_, with notable TV work (_Dirty Sexy Money_, _Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All_ and many more) thrown in for good measure. One gets the sense that not only can Donald Sutherland play absolutely any type of role offered to him, in any genre, but that at some point in the past five decades, he probably already has. Here, on his 79th birthday and in honor of his long, stellar, still-vibrant career, LIFE.com offers a gallery of rare pictures (none of them ran in LIFE magazine) of Sutherland and his family, including son Kiefer, by photographer Co Rentmeester in 1970\. He and his wife at the time, the Canadian activist and actress Shirley Douglas, divorced not long after these photos were made. But in their depiction of an already accomplished actor on the cusp of a transformative period in both his career and his personal life, Rentmeester’s photographs capture one of the movies’ singular, most versatile talents, quite literally letting his hair down. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland, 1970 Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland and his son, Kiefer, in California, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland and his son, Kiefer, in California, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland and his children, twins Kiefer and Rachel, in California, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland with his wife, Shirley Douglas, and their children (l-r): Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Douglas (Shirley's son from her first marriage), Rachel Sutherland, in California, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland shaving, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Shirley Douglas looks at pictures of her husband, Donald Sutherland, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland with his twin children, Rachel and Kiefer, and his stepson, Tom (left), in California, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland and family, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland and his children, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland, 1970. Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Donald Sutherland, 1970. 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