Small roles in British film and television followed, among them appearances alongside Christopher Lee in the horror films Castle of the Living Dead and Dr Terror’s House of Horrors.
The first of these was directed by Warren Kiefer, whose surname Sutherland gave to his oldest son Kiefer when he was born shortly afterwards.
Other roles around this time included parts in episodes of The Saint, one of which was directed by its star Roger Moore.
It was on the strength of that episode that Sutherland landed his breakthrough role in World War Two action film The Dirty Dozen.
Sutherland was not the first choice to play irreverent soldier Vernon Pinkley, one of 12 outcasts chosen by Lee Marvin’s major for a suicide mission behind enemy lines.
But director Robert Aldrich was so impressed by the scene in which Pinkley impersonates a general that his part was expanded.
Sutherland’s eye-catching performance led him to winning one of the lead roles in M*A*S*H, a satirical comedy about medics in the Korean War.
