The entertainment world mourns the tragic loss of renowned Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, who passed away on June 20, 2024, at 88.
Donald, the beloved son of Frederick McLea Sutherland and Dorothy Isobel McNichol, grew up with his two half-siblings, Betty and John Sutherland. Let’s delve into his family’s close-knit world.
Highlights
- Betty Sutherland, also known as Boschka, was an artist who passed away due to pancreatic cancer on February 13, 1984.
- She married Irving Layton in 1969 but divorced in 1978. They have two children, Max and Naomi.
- John Sutherland, a Canadian poet, literary critic, and magazine editor, passed away due to cancer on September 1, 1956.
Donald Sutherland was born at the Saint John General Hospital in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, on July 17, 1935.
He was of German, Scottish, and English ancestry, and his parents named him Donald McNichol Sutherland.
His father provided for the family, working in sales and running the local gas, electricity, and bus company.
Donald and his family lived in a farmhouse in Lakeside, a rural community in Kings County near Hampton, until they moved to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, at age 12.
His siblings, Betty and John, lived with their grandparents in Lockeport, Nova Scotia, when their mother, Lois, passed away.
Four years after Frederick married Dorothy, the siblings relocated again and were reunited with their father in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Donald Sutherland Sister Betty Sutherland Was An Under-Appreciated Artist
Betty Sutherland was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, on May 14, 1920. Her parents, Lois and Frederick, named her Frances Elizabeth (Betty) Sutherland.
She was one of the most under-appreciated artists in Canadian art & literature history.
"Snake Charmer"
— Nihil (@_NihilObstat) May 11, 2016
Boschka Layton (Betty Sutherland),
esposa del poeta canadiense Irving Layton pic.twitter.com/lKmHY3FE4D
She became interested in arts and painting from a young age and joined Saint John Vocational School, where she studied art with Violet Gillet.
Moreover, she painted the door panels for the auditorium display. Later, she joined the Art Student League in New York for another year.
Betty met her husband, the poet Irving Layton while working at First Statement. She was Christian, and her husband was Orthodox Jewish, which quickly outraged their families.
Irving’s mother, Keine Lazarovitch, only allowed them to move in with her after the birth of their son, Max. The love birds married in 1948 and welcomed a second child, Naomi.
Unfortunately, they separated in 1969 and divorced in 1978.
Afterward, she changed her name to Boschka, a combination of her Jewish nickname, Bashka, and Hieronymus Bosch, a painter she admired.
She finally published The Prodigal Sun, a book of her own drawings, poems, and short stories, in 1982.
Sadly, she passed away due to pancreatic cancer in Guerneville, California, on February 13, 1984.
Donald Sutherland Brother John Sutherland Founded Two Important Canadian Literary Magazines
John Sutherland was a Canadian poet, literary critic, and magazine editor born on February 21, 1919. Sadly, he passed away due to cancer on September 1, 1956.
He was known as the founder and editor of important Canadian literary magazines, First Statement and Northern Review.
He played a significant role in bringing Layton’s poetry to a broader audience, thanks to his First Statement magazine, the small publisher that published Irving Layton’s debut book, Here and Now.
Likewise, he also published the anthology Other Canadians: An Anthology of New Poetry in Canada, a collection of Canadian modernist poetry.
In 1943, John reviewed Patrick Anderson‘s poetry in First Statement, suggesting homoerotic themes in his writing. He accused him of “having some sexual experience of a kind not normal.”
However, Patrick, who was married to Peggy Doernbach at the time, later came out as gay. He threatened to sue, and John printed a retraction in the following issue.
Nonetheless, John’s Other Canadians was seen as a direct response to poet A. J. M. Smith’s book The Book of Canadian Poetry, which led to the rumored rivalry between the two.
Additional Information
- Donald Sutherland began his acting career in 1957 and spanned over seven decades, winning Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
- Despite never being nominated for an Academy Award, he was considered one of the greatest actors of all time, and in 2017 he was awarded an Academy Honorary Award.
- Betty and John founded Canada’s first modernist literary magazine, First Statement.
