Donald Sutherland and Francine Racette’s romance began five decades before his death.
In the 1970s, Sutherland and Racette met on the set of the film Alien Thunder, where he starred as Sergeant Dan Candy and she portrayed Emilie Grant. The pair exchanged vows in 1972.
While discussing the decisions he made in his career in a 2005 interview, Sutherland gushed about his relationship with Racette. “Everything was my fault. I was so dumb,” he told the Guardian. “But if I hadn’t made the mistakes I made, I wouldn’t have met the wonderful woman I’ve been married to for over 30 years, so I guess that makes the mistakes OK.”
The Hunger Games star and Racette went on to welcome sons Roeg, Rossif and Angus in 1974, 1978 and 1982, respectively. (Sutherland is also a father of actor Kiefer and daughter Rachel, whom he shared with his late ex-wife, Shirley Douglas.)
Prior to his relationships with Douglas and Racette, Sutherland was married to the late Lois Hardwick.
Keep scrolling to see Sutherland and Racette’s love story from the beginning:
1972
The pair tied the knot in 1972 after meeting on the set of Alien Thunder, which was released in 1974.
February 1974
The couple welcomed their first child, son Roeg, who’s named after the director Nicolas Roeg.
1977
The couple costarred in The Disappearance, where Sutherland played a hit man who’s assignment is connected to his wife’s (played by Racette) disappearance.
September 1978
Racette gave birth to the pair’s second child, son Rossif. His moniker stemmed from the director Frédéric Rossif.
September 1982
The twosome welcomed their third child, Angus Redford, who was named after Robert Redford.
March 2008
When asked whether it was “luck” that Sutherland “married the right woman,” he replied to the Guardian, “I don’t know … It’s not something that you can communicate. She’s an extraordinary human. She was courted by intellectuals. Jean-Paul Sartre? She was his actress. She was Frédéric Rossif‘s muse.”
He continued, “I think it’s like Joanne Woodward [actress wife of Paul Newman] said, ‘Beauty goes and sex goes but my husband makes me laugh every single day.’ And so does my wife. We laugh all the time.”
November 2014
Sutherland was sure to praise Racette during an interview with GQ. “I don’t think I’m a good father. Francine! She’s a wonderful mother,” he said in 2014. “I’m not a bad father, but I’m not a terribly good father. Francine! Am I a good father?”
After Racette emerged from the kitchen, she replied, “How would I know? I’m not your child. Why don’t you ask me, ‘Am I a good husband?’ [laughs] Listen, he is a good father, because everybody knows — .”
Sutherland noted that his “children love [him],” before asking Racette, “You know something darling?” She responded, “Quoi?”
November 2017
Sutherland gave a sweet shout-out to Racette while accepting an Honorary Academy Award in 2017.
“And, of course, thank you to Francine Racette, from whom everything has come — that’s my family — from whom everything has come, and to whom everything is owed,” he said in his speech. “I have been a partner to her for over 45 years, and in all that she has supported me with her intelligence, her intuition, her instruction, her ability to make me laugh in the direst of situations, her extraordinary sense of taste, her residual belief in me.”
He continued, “Amongst all of these, her ability to absorb and sustain the extraordinary ups and downs of this crazy movie life we have gone through. I mean, she deserves a medal for that. So, Francine, I’m going to get you a medal.”
June 2024
Sutherland died at the age of 88 after a “long illness,” CAA confirmed to Deadline.
