Kiefer Sutherland

Kiefer Sutherland
Sutherland at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (1966-12-21) 21 December 1966 Paddington, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor film director film producer
Years active	1983–present
Spouse(s)	Camelia Kath (m. 1987–90) Elizabeth Kelly Winn (m. 1996–2004)
Children	Sarah Sutherland (daughter)
Parent(s)	Donald Sutherland Shirley Douglas
Relatives	Angus Sutherland (half-brother) Rossif Sutherland (half-brother) Francine Racette (stepmother) Tommy Douglas (grandfather)
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Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland^[1] (born 21 December 1966)^[2] is a British-born Canadian actor, film producer, and film director. He has won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Satellite Awards for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox series 24. Since 2001 Sutherland has been associated most widely with the role of Bauer.^[3] He also starred as Martin Bohm in the Fox drama Touch and provided the English voice of Snake in the video games Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.^[4]

Sutherland has also had a successful movie career and starred in films such as Stand by Me (1986), The Lost Boys (1987), Young Guns (1988) and its sequel, Young Guns II (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), The Three Musketeers (1993), A Time to Kill (1996), Dark City (1998), Phone Booth (2003), Mirrors (2008), Melancholia (2011), and Pompeii (2014).

Early life

Sutherland was born in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London to Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, both successful Canadian actors.^[3] He has a twin sister, Rachel. His maternal grandfather was Scottish-born Canadian politician and former Premier of Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, who is widely credited for bringing universal health care to Canada.

Sutherland is named after American-born writer and director Warren Kiefer, who, under the assumed name of Lorenzo Sabatini,^[5] directed Donald Sutherland in his first feature film, the 1964 Italian low-budget horror film Il castello dei morti vivi (Castle of the Living Dead).^[6][7]

Sutherland's family moved to Corona, California. His parents divorced in 1970.^[3] In 1975, Sutherland moved with his mother to Toronto. He attended elementary school at Crescent Town Elementary School, St. Clair Junior High East York, and John G. Althouse Middle School in Toronto. He attended five different high schools, including St. Andrew's College, Martingrove Collegiate Institute, Harbord Collegiate Institute, Silverthorn Collegiate Institute, Malvern Collegiate Institute, and Annex Village Campus. He also spent a semester at Regina Mundi Catholic College in London, Ontario and attended weekend acting lessons at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School. Sutherland told Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2009) that he and Robert Downey, Jr. were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting.^[8] He and Downey, Jr. also starred together in the film 1969.

Career

Kiefer Sutherland's star on Canada's Walk of Fame

1980s: Rise to fame in Hollywood

Sutherland made his screen debut in Max Dugan Returns (the same case with Matthew Broderick), in which his father Donald Sutherland also starred. Sutherland was one of the contenders for the role of Glen Lantz in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which ultimately became Johnny Depp's first feature film debut. After receiving critical acclaim for his role as Donald Campbell in The Bay Boy, Sutherland moved to Hollywood. Stand by Me was the first film Sutherland made in the United States.^[9] In the film, directed by Rob Reiner, he played a neighborhood bully in a coming-of-age story about a search for a dead body. Before that, he played a silent, supporting character, as one of Sean Penn's friends who goes up against Christopher Walken in James Foley's crime-thriller At Close Range . His film Promised Land, with Meg Ryan, was the first film to be commissioned by the Sundance Film Festival. In the Western film Young Guns (1988), he starred alongside Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips. He was considered for the role of Robin in Batman (1989), alongside Michael Keaton, in the early production before the character was deleted from the shooting script. He went on to star again with his close friend Lou Diamond Phillips, in the crime-action film Renegades. That same year, he and his father appeared at the 61st Academy Awards as presenters of the Academy Honorary Award to the National Film Board of Canada.

1990s

In the sequel Young Guns II (1990), Sutherland continued to play the 'Doc' alongside some of the original casts and with newcomer Christian Slater. It is the only sequel in a feature film he has starred in. In A Few Good Men (1992) which starred Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore and was directed by Rob Reiner, he played a junior officer to Jack Nicholson's Col. Nathan P. Jessup.

In The Vanishing (1993), he starred, alongside Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock, as a husband seeking his wife three years after she mysteriously vanished. In The Three Musketeers (1993), Sutherland played the central character of Athos.

In The Cowboy Way (1994), he played a "big, reticent" brother alongside Woody Harrelson. In 1996, he had chance to star with Sally Field and Ed Harris in the film Eye for an Eye. In Dark City (1998), also starring William Hurt, he played a small but key role connected to the main character (Rufus Sewell), so he can defeat the antagonist and his army's power.

Sutherland's other notable films in the decade were Flashback (1990), as a young cop alongside Dennis Hopper; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), the continuation of the short-lived television series with a same name which ran from 1990 to 1991; and Article 99 (1992) with Ray Liotta.

2000s: 24

Since 2001, Sutherland has been associated most widely with the role of Jack Bauer, on the critically acclaimed television series 24.^[3] After being nominated four times for the "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" Primetime Emmy Award, Sutherland won the award in 2006 for his role in 24's fifth season. In the opening skit of the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards, Sutherland made an appearance as his 24 character, Jack Bauer. He was also nominated for Best actor in a Drama Television Series in the 2007 Golden Globe Awards for 24. According to his 2006 contract, his salary of $40 million for three seasons of the show made him the highest-earning actor on television.^[10] Sutherland constantly emphasizes that the show is merely "entertainment."^[11] The dean of the United States Military Academy, Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, visited the set of 24 in February 2007 to urge the show's makers to reduce the number of torture scenes^[12] and Sutherland accepted an invitation from the U.S. military to tell West Point cadets that it is wrong to torture prisoners.^[13] In an interview with OK! Magazine, Howard Gordon said it would be an "unbearable loss" if they killed off Sutherland's character.^[14]

Sutherland holding his cheque for The 1 Second Film, 2006

For spending too much time in 24, he spent very less time in films. In 2004, He starred in Taking Lives, alongside Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke, in which he had a "flashy cameo". In The Sentinel (2006), he starred alongside his elder brother in the movie industry, Michael Douglas, as his protégé. He played the lead roles in Alexandre Aja's supernatural horror, Mirrors (2008).^[15] In 2009, he joined the DreamWorks's animation Monsters vs. Aliens, reunited him with actress Reese Witherspoon, in which they have starred together in Freeway, the animation is also Sutherland's highest grossing-film ever.

The actor is also a frequent collaborator with director Joel Schumacher, and has appeared in The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Phone Booth,^[16] the big screen adaptation of A Time to Kill (the film also starred his father Donald, although their characters did not interact), and Twelve. In The Lost Boys, Sutherland was reunited with actor Corey Feldman, who he had previously worked with on Stand by Me.

In 2005, Sutherland was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto,^[17] where both of his parents have also been inducted. He ranked No. 68 on the 2006 Forbes Celebrity 100 list of the world's most powerful celebrities, his earnings were a reported $23 million.^[18] In 2009, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[19] Sutherland was the first Inside the Actors Studio guest to be the child of a former guest; his father, Donald, appeared on the show in 1998.^[3] Sutherland was featured on the cover of the April 2006 edition of Rolling Stone, in an article entitled "Alone in the Dark with Kiefer Sutherland." The article began with Sutherland revealing his interest to be killed off in 24. However, he stated, "Don't get me wrong. I love what I do." It also revealed that he devoted 10 months a year working on 24.^[20]

Sutherland in 2009

He has starred in Japanese commercials for CalorieMate, performing a parody of his Jack Bauer character.^[21] Sutherland also provides voice-overs for the current ad campaign for the Ford Motor Company of Canada.^[22] In mid-2006, he voiced the Apple, Inc. advertisement announcing the inclusion of Intel chips in their Macintosh computer line.^[23] He also voices the introduction to NHL games on the Versus network in the U.S.^[24]

2010s: Continue with television and film festivals

On 14 February 2010, Fox TV announced they were temporarily suspending production of Season 8 of 24 due to a ruptured cyst near one of Sutherland's kidneys. According to the report, he waited a few days before going in to have "elective surgery" performed.^[25] It was anticipated that he would return after a week, but a few days further were needed and Fox reported that his return to set would be 1 March.^[26]

In the 2011 drama-thriller Melancholia directed by Lars Von Trier, he played the male lead character, and got chances to share screens with long-lost co-star, such as Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt, the latter Kiefer also share the screen with another time, this time in small screen, in the web series The Confession. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the best-selling novel adaptation directed by Mira Nair, he played a character supported for the newcomer's, Riz Ahmed, as a boss named Jim Cross. And in the 2014 historical-disaster movie, Pompeii, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, he played a corrupted senator which have plot to stop the love between the city ruler's daughter and the Roman slave whose family is killed by the Roman senator, concluded with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79.

Sutherland also provided narration for several promotional spots for the United States Men's National Soccer Team during the 2014 FIFA World Cup for ESPN.^[27] He has appeared in a Brazilian TV commercials for Citroën C4 sedan^[28] and a voice-over for a commercial for Bank of America.^[29] He voices Sgt. Roebuck in Treyarch's video game Call of Duty: World at War and voices Snake (aka Big Boss) in the video game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and its sequel Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, taking over the role originally performed by David Hayter.^[30]

Sutherland signs an autograph at Green Hill conference in 2007

In 2011, he made his Broadway debut, opposite Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Noth and Jason Patric, in the Broadway revival of That Championship Season, which opened in March 2011. The show has since closed. A rumour making film with Kate Bosworth also surrounded, a project named "Fairytale of New York", with a love story about an Irish standup comic who meets an American woman in a New York art gallery while on tour, with Lee Cleary directing, but it not come to and end. In 2012, Sutherland starred in the Fox television series Touch. He played the father of an autistic boy who does not like to be touched, while the son also communicates future humanity interrelated events to his father through numbers and mathematics.^[31][32]

On 14 May 2013, it was confirmed that the show 24 would return for a limited series.^[33] Before that, he was also offered the lead role in the NBC drama The Blacklist. In May and July 2014, Fox aired the twelve-episode 24: Live Another Day, which received acclaimed reviews from critics.

Personal life

Sutherland in 2008

Family and relationships

Sutherland has one daughter (Sarah) from his first marriage to Camelia Kath, the widow of Chicago guitarist/singer Terry Kath, to whom he was married from 1987 to 1990, and through his marriage to Camelia, he became stepfather to Michelle Kath, who has two sons.^[34] Sarah Sutherland is an actress and appears on the television series, Veep.

Julia Roberts met Sutherland in 1990, when they co-starred in Flatliners. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with an elaborate studio-planned wedding scheduled for 14 June 1991. Roberts broke the engagement three days before the wedding allegedly because Sutherland had been meeting with a go-go dancer named Amanda Rice. Sutherland denied having an affair with Rice and said that they only met because he liked to play pool. On the day of what was supposed to be their wedding, Roberts went to Ireland with Sutherland's friend Jason Patric.^[35]

In the late 1990s, Sutherland purchased a 900-acre (3.6 km²) ranch in Montana and traveled on the road with the rodeo.^[36]

On 29 June 1996, Sutherland married Kelly Winn. The couple separated in 1999, and he filed for divorce in 2004. The divorce was finalized on 16 May 2008.^[37]

Legal troubles

Sutherland was arrested in Los Angeles on 25 September 2007, on drunk driving charges, after failing a field sobriety test. His test exceeded the state's legal blood alcohol limit, and he was later released on a $25,000 bail. It was Sutherland's fourth DUI arrest since 1989.^[38] Sutherland pleaded no contest to the DUI charge and was sentenced to 48 days in jail.^[39] Initially, he arranged to split his sentence and spend 18 days in jail during 24's winter break in late December and early January 2008; the Hollywood writers' strike interrupted production, allowing him to serve his sentence in 48 consecutive days.^[40]

Sutherland surrendered to the New York Police Department (NYPD) on 7 May 2009 for head-butting fashion designer Jack McCollough, founder and co-designer of Proenza Schouler, at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo following a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[41][42] Several weeks later, Sutherland and McCollough issued a joint statement in which Sutherland apologized; police later dropped the charges.^[43]

Business ventures

Sutherland is the co-owner (along with Jude Cole) of the independent record label Ironworks.

Sutherland reportedly fell victim to a financial scam involving cattle in 2010.^[44] According to the Associated Press, the perpetrator, Michael Wayne Carr, allegedly took US$869,000 from Sutherland, ostensibly on the account of steers to be purchased. Prosecutors alleged that Carr never purchased the steers. Carr pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay US$956,000 in restitution to Sutherland and his investment partner.^[45]

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Stage

See also

References

External links

• Kiefer Sutherland at the Internet Movie Database
• Kiefer Sutherland at BAFTA http://www.bafta.org/press/press-releases/attendees-confirmed-for-this-sundays-ee-british-academy-film-awards
• Kiefer Sutherland producer profile on The 1 Second Film