Actor Donald Sutherland died on June 20, 2024, after suffering from prostate cancer and severe lung damage from smoking up to four packs of cigarettes per day. Several years before he died, he stopped smoking and wouldn’t let anyone smoke near him. He kept smokers at least 100 yards away from his movie sets. In his last years, he had to breathe from an oxygen tank all the time.
Sutherland was a Canadian actor and film and television star who, in a 70-year career, won a Prime-time Emmy Award and two Golden Globes, and was an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was voted into the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2000 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011, and Canada Post issued a stamp in his honor in October 2023. In 2012, he was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2019, he received the Companion of the Order of Canada. He starred in many films including The Dirty Dozen (1967), MASH (1970), Kelly’s Heroes (1970), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Animal House (1978), Pride & Prejudice (2005) and The Hunger Games franchise.
Early Life and Acting Career
Sutherland was born in 1935 in New Brunswick, Canada, and he suffered from rheumatic fever, hepatitis, and poliomyelitis in his childhood. At age 14, he was a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW. In 1957, at age 22, he moved to Britain to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and while there, he appeared in British films and TV. In 1968, at age 33, he went to Hollywood where he starred in many successful films and television productions. In spite of suffering from meningitis and lung damage requiring constant use of oxygen, he continued to be active in movies and television up to 2020. He spent his last years limited by prostate cancer and severe lung disease, and he died of these conditions in 2024. Smoking cigarettes causes lung damage and is associated with increased risk for prostate cancer (Am J Public Health, April 2010;100(4):693–701).
What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)?
You need oxygen to stay alive. Oxygen goes into your lungs through your bronchial tubes and passes through air sac membranes called alveoli into your bloodstream. COPD means that your bronchial tubes are constricted, thickened and scarred, so you have difficulty bringing oxygen into your lungs, and your alveoli are damaged so that oxygen cannot pass readily into, and carbon dioxide cannot pass out from, your bloodstream.
COPD affects 32 million people and is the third-leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. You can get COPD from breathing in smoke, fumes from fuel for cooking or heating, air pollution, workplace exposure to dust, smoke or fumes, and so forth. It is also caused by certain conditions that interfere with bringing oxygen in, and carbon dioxide out, of your lungs, such as Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, cystic fibrosis, uncontrolled asthma or any chronic lung infection. Symptoms of COPD include:
- Chronic cough
- Shortness of breath, especially during activities that you were formerly able to do
- Heavy phlegm (mucus) production
- Wheezing when you breathe
- Unable to take a deep breath
- Tightness in the chest
The most significant risk factor for COPD is long-term cigarette smoking. The more years and the more packs you smoke, the greater the risk. Pipe smokers, cigar smokers, marijuana smokers and all other smokers are also at high risk for COPD. Smokers who have a chronic airway disease, such as asthma, are at very high risk for permanent lung damage. People exposed to large amounts of second-hand smoke also are at risk. Living or working with a smoker increases risk for COPD as well as for heart attacks and certain cancers.
Prostate Cancer
Nobody really knows what causes prostate cancer, but a leading theory is that an overactive immune system, called inflammation, may increase risk for prostate cancer (Cancers (Basel), 2023 Feb; 15(3): 630). An anti-inflammatory diet is associated with reduced risk for prostate cancer (Nutr Cancer, 2019;71(3):359-366). Your immune system is supposed to be good for you because it prevents germs from getting into your bloodstream and cells. Your immune system also seeks out and destroys the many defective cancer cells that your body produces every day. However, an immune system that stays active all the time can use the same cells and proteins to attack and destroy the DNA in healthy cells, altering them so they try to live forever and become cancer cells that can overgrow and invade healthy tissue (Front Physiol, March 20, 2023;14:1119095).
Lessons from Sutherland’s Death
You can markedly reduce your chances of developing COPD by avoiding smoking, smoke and all pollutants in the air. Prevention of prostate cancer is not so clear. Extensive data suggest, but does not prove, that you may be able to reduce risk for prostate cancer with the same lifestyle changes used to prevent and treat heart attacks. More and more studies are associating prostate cancer with the same risk factors as those for heart attacks: unhealthful diet, overweight, lack of exercise, lack of vitamin D, high blood sugar levels, smoking and excess alcohol intake. See Lifestyle After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Donald McNichol Sutherland
July 17, 1935 – June 20, 2024
