MovieChat Forums > Kelly's Heroes (1970) Discussion > Sutherland's lethal illness?

Sutherland's lethal illness?


According to the trivia section Donald Sutherland was lethally ill; anyone know what was ailing him?

"I'll have a steak sandwich...and a steak sandwich"

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I didn't know about this; did some googling and it seemed he contracted spinal meningitis while filming Kelly's Heroes.

Per this article, http://www.contactmusic.com/donald-sutherland/news/donald-sutherland-came-close-to-death_1309623

(will quote it in case it is removed later)

"Donald Sutherland saw ''the white light'' when he died for a ''few seconds'' after being stricken with meningitis while filming 'Kelly's Heroes'."

"The 76-year-old actor played the part of Sergeant Oddball in the 1970 comedy/war film, and during the middle of shooting he was hit with a bout of spinal meningitis, causing him to go into a coma and he admits he ''dug his feet in'' so as not to pass away.

"He said: 'I got sick in the middle of shooting 'Kelly's Heroes'. I came to Yugoslavia for a day's filming and I was out for six weeks.

''They took me to hospital - I had spinal meningitis. They didn't have the antibiotics, so I went into a coma, and they tell me that for a few seconds, I died. I saw the blue tunnel, and I started going down it. I saw the white light. I dug my feet in.''

"However, Donald was tempted for a second to stop fighting to stay alive.

"He added: ''I didn't want to go - but it was incredibly tempting. You just go, 'Aw, s**t man, why not?' ''

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Nobody dies for a few minutes. Dead people cannot come back to life. Maybe his heart temporarily stopped, or he stopped breathing, but if he had died, that would have been the end.

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