BIG EARS HELPED SUTHERLAND LAND HIS BIG BREAK
DONALD SUTHERLAND owes his big ears for his movie break because he’s convinced he would have missed out on a speaking part in THE DIRTY DOZEN if he hadn’t stood out from the crowd of extras.
That lucky break led to producer INGO PREMINGER spotting Sutherland in the film and insisting the young Canadian actor won top billing in dark war comedy M*A*S*H - and the rest, as they say, is history.
The 71-year-old movie great recalls, "I had one line in The Dirty Dozen, which was, ‘Number two sir.’ We were rehearsing and we all had been given our script. I still have it.
"CLINT WALKER refused to say a line because it went against his Native American heritage. We all had our heads shaved for the film and I had pretty big ears and I was looking down at the script and BOB ALDRIDGE, the director, said, ‘You, with the big ears, you do it.’ It changed my life.
"Ingo Preminger, the producer of M*A*S*H, saw that scene, where I stick my tongue out, and offered me the role of HAWKEYE PIERCE in M*A*S*H. and I got top billing - over Elliott Gould." But Sutherland regrets not paying Aldridge back for giving him his big break.
He explains, "Bob asked me to do a war picture after M*A*S*H and I turned him down. I should’ve done the picture whether I wanted to or not. I owed him. I didn’t pay my debt and I regret it. I think about that."
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