“Donald was a giant, not only physically but as a talent. He was also enormously kind and generous.”
Elliott Gould, who starred alongside Donald Sutherland in Robert Altman’s 1970 war comedy MASH, shared a tribute to the beloved actor, who died on Thursday at the age of 88.
In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, Gould remembered his co-star and longtime friend. “Donald was a giant, not only physically but as a talent. He was also enormously kind and generous. Donald and I both had sons that were born just a week apart. We were young fathers at the same time,” said Gould.
He continued, “It’s never easy losing the caliber of a human being and actor like Donald Sutherland, but this one really profoundly hurts because Donald was like my brother, and a big part of my own career.” He added, “Rest in Peace, you dear, dear kind friend. I love you and I will never forget you.”
The duo played the wry, martini-drinking Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Sutherland) and “Trapper” John McIntyre Altman (Gould) on the Altman masterpiece — two U.S. surgeons trying to keep it together while sewing up wounded bodies during the Korean War in a mobile hospital.
In a 1970 interview for the CBC segment Telescope, Sutherland said the comedy film “showed the concept of war without showing war,” adding, “When you are in a field station like we were, it is insane to watch human bodies come flying into a camp that are wrecked for no reason at all. That kind of insanity created an environment, a kind of mini-society, that was in chaos. To a lot of people, that represents a kind of society that we have today.”
Sutherland and Elliot would go on to collaborate together throughout their careers including on Little Murders in 1971, Irving Kershner’s 1974 film S*P*Y*S, and Picking Up the Pieces in 2000 by Alfonso Arau.
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