The Expos and Donald Sutherland a Love Story

All celebrity fans should aspire to be like late Canadian megastar

Sadly, on Wednesday in Miami, the greatest Canadian actor in history, the New Brunswick-born megastar Donald Sutherland passed away, at the end of a lengthy illness. The Hollywood icon never was deemed worthy of an Oscar for any of his amazing work in 150-plus movies. Coincidentally, his beloved Montreal Expos (1969-2004) never won their ultimate prize, a World Series in their 36 years of National League play. At their finest, both Donald and his true-north, boys of summer could be highly entertaining and outrageously as good as anyone, but neither would ever be recognized as best of the best.  

Whatever it was that linked the great Canadian movie star with his No. 1 sporting passion, what shone through was the genuine love that remained always sublime.

As far as the role of being a pro sports franchise’s No. 1 celebrity follower, Sutherland was what you would want anyone in that relationship to be.

There was no grand entrance, grabbing a headset and trading barbs with broadcasters and players. There was no need to participate in re-designing uniforms or handing out tee-shirts promoting his latest movie. There was no using the team/fan relationship to promote used cars then using the notoriety to write a book. There was no attempt to be part of the show, like firing up crowds with an off-key version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” from the press box.

In fact, in the late ‘70s and ‘80s at Olympic Stadium, whenever Donald was not busy shooting a movie at some faraway location, he would summer at his home on Lake Memphremagog in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, bordering on Vermont and then drive the two hours to Olympic Stadium for Expos home games.

His season seats were at the home-plate end of the visitors’ dugout, three rows up, right on the aisle. They were his seats, bought and paid for. He would arrive dressed for the weather, whatever it was, would unpack his information and his stay-hydrated refreshments, sit back, focus and root for his friends.  

There were only two people that I was aware of, in the days before the Internet, who, when they were away from the Expos, would find and hook up an expensive phone connection somewhere, somehow in order to listen to Dave Van Horne, and his familiar, dulcet tones, describing the action with his partner of the day, whether Duke Snider, Ken Singleton or others. Those two remote fans were owner Charles Bronfman and Sutherland. Both shared an Expos passion.

The Expos and Blue Monday

The long and winding road to Blue Monday in 1981 was special for most Canadians and was a highlight both for the franchise and for Donald. By then, he was an already established Hollywood star. He had a west coast home in Los Angeles and a working yacht in the marina, one that he used to follow his Expos on the West Coast, to San Diego and San Francisco.

As MLB’s 1981 second half unfolded after the strike was settled, Sutherland became more of a presence, both home and road. He had fractured a bone in his wrist early in 1981 and spent the rest of the year rehabbing, encased in a cast – as good an excuse as any not to be on movie locations and to stay with his beloved ball team. In fact, if you check closely his filmography, there is a two-year gap between “Eye of the Needle” released in 1981 and “Max Dugan Returns” in 1983.

So, of course, when the Expos reached the final series of the regular season at Shea Stadium, in New York, Sutherland was there behind the Expos dugout, one-fist anxiously clenched and the other held rigid by a cast. When Wallace Johnson stroked his key pinch-hit triple and Jeff Reardon nailed down a 5-4 victory for starter Bill Lee, the Expos were headed to the first ever post-season series brought on and created by the unique first-half/second-half format.

On that clinching night, as I herded stars of the game down the stadium hallway one at a time to do interviews, the clubhouse was already in a champagne-soaked celebration. But even though Sutherland had been with the team for many losing years and, in fact, for most key moments in the ’81 season, it took traveling secretary Peter Durso to argue, convince and physically pull Donald into the clubhouse to quietly be able to enjoy the chaos of victory. Special.

Welcome to Miami

Then came the 20^th Anniversary season in 1989. Earlier, the idea of a highlight film had been brought up and with 20 years and 19 seasons, there was a lot of ground to cover. Who better to narrate than Donald Sutherland.

The negotiating committee to secure Donald’s help consisted of Expos VP Richard Morency, Brian Schecter, who was TSN game producer and of the Expos annual highlight films, Terry Haig, a former Expos beat writer, a fellow actor and close Sutherland confidant and myself. Easy?

Consider that here was a man, at the height of his career, commanding millions of dollars for starring in a two-hour movie and yet for narrating a two-hour Expos tribute video, all that he felt he required was a couple of season tickets for the immediate future in his same seats. Schecter worked on the video and I wrote the script. It was an epic project with a 5* narrator.       

When it was time, Part 1 of the plan was picking Sutherland up at his Old Montreal Hotel in a limou, then taking him to the most famous locales in Montreal to record the standup intros and exits. It was a full day, including the top of Mt. Royal, the Botanical Gardens, some high ground overlooking the Big O and more. We stopped for ice cream on the way back to his hotel.

Then came the heavy lifting of flying to a sound studio in Miami to meet Donald for a full day of standing at a microphone in a dark room, with the visual playing on a giant screen, sync-ing his voice to video. Sutherland had just wrapped up a bad movie, “Lock Up” with Sylvester Stallone both acting and directing. Donald would then be taking a flight back to Paris to be with his wife, Francine, after a long absence. He was clearly in a hurry. I had with me the script on 200 connected pages of computer printout that unfolded and hit the floor in front of him like the business end of an accordion slipping out of a bad polka guy’s hand. Donald’s jaw dropped almost as fast as the script. But he was game.  

The Miami sound engineers were true pros. I like to believe they were the same guys that did the Bee Gees and Eric Clapton. Donald was a perfectionist and thus for the first 45 minutes, after reading 30 seconds of script, from the darkness, Brian and I would go “That was great” and he would respond, “I can do it better.” But, after he looked at his watch a few times, it became One-Take Sutherland. His one take was always gold.

The only time he questioned was as Rick Monday in slow motion swung the bat and launched a Steve Rogers pitch over the fence as Andre Dawson slumped his body forward. Donald had just dramatically read: “Monday, Monday, don’t trust that day. Sometimes it just turns out that way.” Donald asked, “What does that mean?” I would have choked on a sandwich, if I had one.    

When we took a lunch break, Donald said great, but he didn’t want to be recognized. He was wearing a full length camel-hair coat and a scarf in 35 C. temperatures. It didn’t happen. Schecter and I were sitting around the table waiting for the food and Brian asked the great one a simple question about the movie he had just put a wrap on. “Is Sly a better actor or director?” Almost immediately, Donald locked eyes with Brian and said, “Neither.”  

Donald Sutherland may have been a reluctant Celebrity Number 1 fan, but nobody was his equal as an actor of unbelievable range, depth and versatility. From light comedy, to horror, to psychological thriller to historical drama, to action movies dealing with war to advocacy for righting societal wrongs.

Actor Tom Blyth, who worked with Sutherland in “The Hunger Games” and its sequels, paid tribute on Wednesday in a post on Instagram: “The long list of Sutherland’s roles and accomplishments shows a man who understood emotion well. He didn’t disappear into a role; he was too distinctive for that. More often, the role disappeared into him, and the result was something unforgettable".

RIP to a great Canadian.

Following is a very personal Top 15 list of Donald Sutherland Movies.

1-MASH (1970)

2-Klute (1971)

3-A Dry White Season (1989)

4-A Time to Kill (1996)

5-Kelly’s Heroes (1970)

6-The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

7-Animal House (1978)

8-The Dirty Dozen (1967)

9-Eye of the needle (1981)

10-The Day of the Locust (1975)

11-JFK (1991)

12-The Italian Job (2003)

13-The Great Train Robbery (1978)

14-Ordinary People (1980)

15-Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

*Lock Up (1989)