Hollywood has lost a light with the death of The Hunger Games star Donald Sutherland,who played Coriolanus Snow in the movie seriesThe Primetime Emmy and two-time Golden Globe-winning actor was 88 years old when he passed away after a long illness.

He earned his Emmy win in 1995 for outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries or a special for Citizen X. The Globes wins were for the same year, project and category for the first. The second was in 2003 for the same category for Path to War. In 2018, he was given an honorary Academy Award.

To celebrate his life and career, let’s take a look at Sutherland’s iconic portrayal of the ruthless Coriolanus Snow in the Hunger Games movies.

Celebrating Donald Sutherland as the ruthless Coriolanus Snow

The actor played the elderly Snow in four Hunger Games films. He has stated that he asked to be a part of the movie after he read the first film’s script due to its political themes. He compared the script to Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 film Paths of Glory.

Sutherland had been part of left-wing activist movements when he was younger, and wanted to be in a film that may encourage young viewers to organize and start a revolutionary movement in order to create change in the US. He wrote a letter to the first movie’s director, Gary Ross, which impressed him so much that he wrote two scenes based on what the actor had written.

He believed that Snow was an irredeemable character and compared him to a few US presidents who made “expedient decisions” to exert their control. However, Sutherland also said that Snow has some measure of respect for Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) because she challenged him and showed him how his life could have gone.

Snow’s first name is from the Roman general Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. He was also a character in William’s Shakespeare’s titular play, a general who supported the aristocrats’ control in society. Critics often compared President Snow to Machiavelli, Nero and Richard III.

Critics and reviewers praised Sutherland’s portrayal of Snow, noting his white beard as making the character look leonine.

Snow in the Hunger Games series

At the end of The Hunger Games, Snow locked the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) in a room with a bowl of nightlock berries, a fruit with juices so toxic that they can kill anyone who eats it in seconds. Crane was punished for what Snow saw as leniency during the games and ultimately allowing two victors instead of just one.

In 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, President Snow tells Katniss that her defiance inspired revolts across Panem. He demands that she and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) pretend to be in love during their Victory Tour. If not, he will destroy their home, District 12, and kill their families.

In’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Snow follows through with his threat after Katniss’ destruction of the forcefield cause riots in more than half the districts as they join District 13 in rebellion. When she visits the ruins of her district, her old house remained untouched with white roses from President Snow, his family’s symbol.

Fun Donald Sutherland Fact 1: The dog wandering in District 12 is his dog, Biggles.

When Katniss and her film team travel to District 8, she is saluted by dozens of the hospital’s wounded civilians. Upon seeing this on scree, Snow ordered an airstrike which killed everyone inside.

In another scene, he bombs the facility the rebels where the rebels are hiding. Katniss realizes that Snow did this to let her know that every time she condemns the Capitol, he will retaliate and this time, he will have Peeta tortured.

The truly villainous President Snow

It is also revealed that Snow forced “desirable” tributes such as Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) and Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) into prostitution, threatening to kill their families if they refused, which is what happened to Johanna. Finnich also stated that Snow rose into a leadership position because he poisoned his rivals.

Fun Donald Sutherland Fact 2: The movie reunites Sutherland and Malone after playing father and daughter in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice. The actor played Mr. Bennet, the main character’s father. Malone played the flighty second-t0-the-youngest Bennet sister, Lydia

In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, he finds out that the rebels are moving through the sewers under the Capitol and deployed genetically engineered “mutts” to attack them, which killed Finnick.
Snow, under the guise of an “invitation,” asked Capitol citizens into his mansion using them as a human shield.

At the end of the film, Katniss confronts him. He tells her that interim President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) staged the bombing of the crowd, which killed Katniss’ sister Primrose (Willow Shields) to turn his followers against him. She initially doesn’t believe him, but then Snow reminds her of their promise to never lie to each other.

At what supposed to be his execution, Katniss shoots Coin instead. Even though Snow literally gets the last laugh, the mob ends up lynching him.

While we do have Tom Blyth’s younger Coriolanus Snow in last year’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes — and rumors of a sequel — Sutherland’s villainous President Snow will definitely be missed.