Clint Eastwood’s unwitting role in Donald and Kiefer Sutherland’s estrangement
We’ve all been there – stuck in the middle of a family rivalry because of mixed messaging and poor communication. As it turns out, even Hollywood icons aren’t immune to those kinds of awkward mix-ups. Donald Sutherland was always candid about the complexities of his relationship with his son, Kiefer Sutherland. Despite being incredibly close, their bond had its fair share of complications. Not least of which was the five-year rift between the two, which was unwittingly set into motion by legendary actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood.
The elder Sutherland recounted the story in a 2017 interview with The Times, recalling a misunderstanding that began almost a decade earlier. As he tells it, it’s a story of crossed wires, unspoken tensions and a touching reconciliation.
In 1996, the younger Sutherland – eager to carry on the family’s tradition of political activism – was awarded the Abolition Award at a Death Penalty Focus event for his work advocating against capital punishment. Donald Sutherland, on the final day of a shoot, couldn’t make it. A crushingly disappointed younger Sutherland later observed that his father had attended a widely publicised AFI event, which awarded Eastwood with his Lifetime Achievement Award. While this event was held the next day – February 29th, 1996 – Sutherland apparently had the dates confused and, for the following five years, believed that his father had cast him aside for his Kelly’s Heroes co-star.
“I couldn’t get a hold of him for five years,” Donald Sutherland says. He recounts that when a journalist mentioned Sutherland’s “wonderful” turn as a supportive grieving father in Ordinary People, Kiefer Sutherland said, “Yeah, I wish I’d had a father like that.”
After five years, though, the two finally reconciled and had only good things to say about each other from then on. In 2007, when Kiefer served a stint in jail for a drunk driving offence, Sutherland wrote him a letter every single day.
Through their illustrious careers, the two worked together only three times—but they didn’t share screen time until 2015’s Forsaken. “Working with him is something I have wanted to do for 30 years,” Kiefer told People. At one point during filming, the elder Sutherland turned to director Jon Cassar and said about Kiefer, “I knew he was a good actor, but he’s really, really good.” This shared admiration lasted until Sutherland’s death.
“I want to impress him. I want him to be proud of me,” Kiefer told the Radio Times in 2022. “I love him, though I don’t get to see him as much as I’d like to… I’m so proud to have him as my father.”
When Sutherland passed in June 2022, Kiefer wrote as touching a tribute as a son could write a father: “With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.”
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Clint Eastwood Newsletter
All the latest stories about Clint Eastwood from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.